About the Book

Riding Jane Crow tells the overlooked story of Black women on American trains, from before the Civil War to more contemporary times. How did Black intellectual women such as Ida B. Wells fight racial segregation through lawsuits, before the (in)famous Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision of 1896? Who were the Black women who worked as Pullman maids, along with the more well-known Pullman porters? How does the experience of Black women on the American railroad provide a more accurate measure of American ingenuity and progress? These questions and others will be answered during this virtual talk.

About the Author

Miriam Thaggert is a professor of English at the University at Buffalo. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on African American literature, history, and culture. Her previous book was on the Harlem Renaissance, Images of Black Modernism: Verbal and Visual Strategies of the Harlem Renaissance. She has also written on films such as Imitation of Life, Twelve Years a Slave, and Mahogany. She is currently working on the Buffalo-area African American poet Lucille Clifton and Percival Everett’s novel, The Trees. She grew up in southwest Louisiana and obtained her Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley.

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