In this groundbreaking history of African Americans’ struggle for citizenship, Jones, the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at Johns Hopkins, focuses on pre-Civil War Baltimore, where Black people claimed citizenship rights decades before the concept was codified in the federal constitution. While the nation debated deporting former slaves born in the U.S., Jones draws on a wide range of archives to document how free Black people fought back by studying law, securing allies, and arguing in courts, legislatures, and at conventions that birth meant citizenship. No less important, Jones argues, was that they conducted themselves like citizens, securing their rights through small and often courageous everyday acts. Jones will be in conversation with Lisa Crooms-Robinson, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Howard University.