The Kidnapping Club is a powerful and resonant account of the ties between slavery and capitalism, corrupt roots of policing in America, and the unflagging strength of Black activism.
Dr. Wells' gripping narrative tells the story of the powerful men who kept the illegal slave trade alive and well in New York City long after slavery had been outlawed in the North. The Kidnapping Club was a network of judges, lawyers, police officers and bankers who sanctioned the kidnapping of free Black men, women and children in New York City who were then sold into markets in the southern states, South America, and the Caribbean for vast sums of wealth.

In 1956, Dr. Dorothy L. Brown became the first single woman in Tennessee to legally adopt a child. This accomplishment was one of many firsts that Dr. Brown achieved in her storied life. Once a ward of the Troy Orphan Asylum in Troy, NY, Brown was a leader in medicine and politics who authored a…

COVID-19 has accelerated the decades-long trend of wealth accumulating at the top, while more and more Americans fall into poverty. The time is now to enact a bold policy agenda that doesn't just alleviate poverty, but ends it. Rev. McNeill will discuss the impact of poverty in the Capital Region and New York State and…

Through anecdotal historical and contemporary narratives, this seminar presents compelling evidence that Native Americans and African Americans have provided unique intertwining social, political and cultural contributions to the development of our United States society. This symbiotic relationship contributed to establishing collaborative agency between these similarly oppressed people in their efforts to gain equal rights and…

The scholarship on the Underground Railroad movement and the Great Migration is vast but little attention has been paid to the voluntary migratory patterns of free black Americans before the Civil War. Dr. Jennifer Thompson Burns will shine light on the importance of studying the antebellum migratory patterns of free Black Americans in the tri-city…

Presenter Dr. Lori Quigley, a member of the Wolf Clan of the Seneca nation, will provide an historical overview of various events that have negatively impacted the lives of Native American groups. She will focus primarily on, but not be limited to, Haudenosaunee nations and/or tribal nations who currently reside within the boundaries of New…