How Respectability Politics Erased Young Women From History

We mark the end of Black History Month with a conversation about the people who are too often left out when we celebrate the past. What do we learn when we study the history of those considered wayward and existing outside of the norms of the day?

Cultural historian and MacArthur fellow Saidiya Hartman introduces host Kai Wright to the young women whose radical lives were obscured by respectability politics. Hartman is the author of "Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals," which offers an intimate look into some of the Black lives that have been seemingly erased from the history books.

Through a series of readings, they explore the complicated role of Black intellectuals like W.E.B DuBois, the Black family and how a damaging moralism continues to inform the policing of marginalized communities, public space and American cultural politics today.

This episode was originally published as “The ‘Beautiful Experiments’ Left Out of Black History” on February 8, 2021. Listen to more episodes here.

Companion listening for this episode: 

Faith Ringgold Creates Space for Black Americans (1/5/2023)

Faith Ringgold’s art is an intimate dialogue and debate between generations of Black women, stretching from the formerly enslaved to today.

“Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.

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Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.