I am an historian of the African American experience, whose work concentrates on histories of Black protest, Black politics, Black culture, and Black masculinity. I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, and attended the historically Black college, North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. While there, I served as president of the University's chapter of the NAACP, and later as student government president. After finishing with dual degrees in History and Political Science, I co-founded an academic enhancement program for “at risk” young Black men, and interned for then US Senator Barack Obama. Following these pursuits, I completed a PhD in History at Northwestern University. Currently, my work includes a spoken word/rap compilation on police brutality and vigilantism against Blacks, entitled “The [Ferguson] Files: A Sonic Study of Racial Violence in America,” and “Let Us Make Men: Black Newspapers and a Manly Vision of Racial Advancement” (under contract with The University of North Carolina Press), a book manuscript still in progress. My book chapter, “‘A Superb Sales Force...The Men of Muhammad’: The Nation of Islam, Black Masculinity, and Selling Muhammad Speaks in the Black Power Era,” will be published in New Perspectives on the Nation of Islam (Dawn Marie Gibson and Herbert Berg, eds., Routledge, forthcoming 2016). I have given a number of public talks, taught courses at Northwestern University, Marquette University, Rutgers University, and now serve as Assistant Professor of History at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Ultimately, I would like for my scholarly and artistic work to generate new ways to analyze history, and produce and consume academic knowledge.