Genna Rae McNeil

Professor M.A. University of Chicago, 1970 Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1975

Research Interests

My publications include scholarly articles, one biography, and three edited volumes: Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights, Historical Judgments Reconsidered, which was co-edited with Michael R. Winston, African Americans and the Living Constitution, published in 1995 by the Smithsonian Institution Press, and co-edited with John Hope Franklin, and African-Americans and Jews in the Twentieth Century: Studies in Convergence and Conflict, co-edited with V.P. Franklin and Nancy Grant, published by the University of Missouri Press (1998). The 1995 volume includes an essay on Baltimore's "City-Wide Young People's Forum" from 1931-1941 and is the first publication of research findings on these urban African-American youth. The 1998 volume includes an essay on the life and work of African-American historian Nancy Grant. My areas of speciality are African-American History and U.S. social movements of the 20th century. Within these areas, current research interests are civil rights, and civil liberties, African-American women and social movements, the African-American religious experience, youth movements, and African-American youth. I am completing a research project on Joan Little and "The 'Free Joan Little' Movement."

With respect to teaching, I have used with some success debates, moot court exercises, simulated congressional hearings and oral history-primary source documentation projects to foster students' engagement with primary sources in the context of survey courses and seminars. I consistently place emphasis on students' in-class discourse, critical analyses, and use of evidence in research projects.

Courses Offered (As Schedules Allow)

For current course listings, consult the Directory of Classes.

• HIST 395 -- Topics in African-American History
• HIST 588 -- History of African Americans, to 1865.
• HIST 589 -- History of African-Americans, 1865 to Present
• HIST 569 -- History of African American Women
• HIST 870 -- Readings in African-American History
• HIST 942 -- Seminar in African-American History

Contact

mcneilgr@unc.edu