Participant Info

First Name
Melissa
Last Name
Ford
Affiliation
Slippery Rock University
Website URL
Keywords
Black radicalism, black feminism, social movements, American communism, Great Depression
Additional Contact Information

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Dr. Ford joined the History Department at Slippery Rock University in Fall 2017 after completing her PhD in American Studies at Saint Louis University. A native St. Louisan, Ford’s research interests centered on race, gender, radical social movements, and the Midwest. She is working on revising her dissertation, “A Bible in One Hand, A Brick in the Other: African American Working Women and Midwestern Black Radicalism during the Great Depression, 1929-1935,” into her first book, under contract with Southern Illinois University Press. She is currently working on a project that examines the role of motherhood in social movements, in particular, linking the 1930s Scottsboro Mothers with women in contemporary social protest movements. She has published in the journal American Communist History as well as H-net panels on Midwestern history.

Recent Publications

“Suppose They Are Communists! The Unemployed Councils and the 1933 Chicago Sopkin Dressmakers’ Strike.” American Communist History  16:1-2 (Winter 2018): 46-64.

Media Coverage
Country Focus
United States
Expertise by Geography
United States
Expertise by Chronology
20th century
Expertise by Topic
Gender, Race, Rebellion & Revolution, Women