I am an Associate Professor at the University of Washington Tacoma. I earned a B.A. in history at the University of Louisville (1994), and a Ph.D. in history at the University of Pennsylvania (2002). Since 2002, I teach courses on United States history; urbanization and African American culture and history. My research focuses on African American culture, religion, migration and music in continuous Black Freedom Movements in America. I have published in a variety of forums including the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Ohio Valley History Journal, the Journal of Social History and the Journal of Urban History. Way Up North in Louisville: African American Migration in the Urban South, 1930-1970 was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2010.

My research project, "Black and Blue: Toward a History of Police Brutality," historicizes the origins and impact of police brutality on African American communities. Police brutality is at the center of African Americans efforts to challenge assertions of black criminality while advocating for protection from police violence in public spheres; and at the same time campaigns to end police brutality were at the root of Black protest politics throughout the twentieth century.