Participant Info

First Name
Frazier
Last Name
Nishani
Country
United States
State
OH Ohio
Affiliation
Miami University
Website URL
nishanifrazier.com
Keywords
African American history, Oral history, Archives and Public History, Digital Humanities - gentrification, black power and black freedom movement of 1960s, black economic development, food history
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
Same as above
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Dr. Nishani Frazier is Associate Professor of History at Miami University of Ohio. Prior to Miami University, she held positions as Associate Curator of African American History and Archives at Western Reserve Historical Society, Assistant to the Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Archives at the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and personal assistant for Dr. John Hope Franklin, before and during his tenure as chair of President Bill Clinton’s advisory board on “One America”. She recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Norway.

Her research interests include 1960s freedom movements, oral history, food, digital humanities, and black economic development. Nishani’s recent book publication, Harambee City: The Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland and the Rise of Black Power Populism, was released with an accompanying website also titled Harambee City. Harambee City website provides a second layer of book “reading” via online access to maps, archival documents, teacher lesson plans, and oral history interviews. Dr. Frazier has consulted on several digital history grants, including a NEH Digital Start up grant for an interactive app related to Freedom Summer.

Frazier’s other writings include: “To Die For the People: Prophecy and Death in the Rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Fred Hampton” in Homegoings, Crossings, and Passings: Life and Death in the African Diaspora; “Building a Black Nation: CORE, Black Power, and the Community Development Corporation Movement” in The New Black History; and “A McDonald’s That Reflects the Soul of a People: McDonald’s Corporation, Operation Black Unity, Hough Area Development Corporation, and Black Economic Empowerment” in The Business of Black Power.

Dr. Frazier is currently completing a policy paper for how to reuse 1960s legislation for current economic development corporations with consideration to gentrification and opportunity zones. Additionally, she’s writing a piece on how gentrification changes oral history technique and methodology.

Recent Publications

Nishani Frazier: The Sounds of Blackness: Space and Sound Preservation as Oral History Advocacy

David Garrow, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Politics of History

The FBI and the Mischaracterization of Bayard Rustin

The Return of Black Political Power: How 1970s History Can Guide New Black Mayors Toward a Radical City

Nishani Frazier, Book Review on Louis Stokes, The Gentleman from Ohio

Media Coverage
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/arts/king-fbi-tapes-david-garrow.html
Country Focus
Expertise by Geography
North America
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, 20th century, 21st century
Expertise by Topic
Capitalism, Food History, Gender, Museums, Public History, Urban History