Keisha Blain’s New Book Champions Black Women in Human Rights

25 Feb 2025

New York Times Bestselling Author, APB Exclusive Speaker and Award-winning Historian Dr. Keisha Blain will release her latest book, Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights, in September. The book, which is being published by W.W. Norton, explores the extensive history of human rights, focusing on the contributions and philosophies of Black women in the United States from the early 1800s to today.

Called one of the most innovative and influential young historians of her generation, Blain’s research and writing examine the dynamics of race, gender and politics from both national and global perspectives.

In addition to Without Fear, Blain is also the author of Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America; Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited with Ibram X. Kendi; and Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom, which won the First Book Award from the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and the Darlene Clark Hine Award from the Organization of American Historians.

She is the co-editor of To Turn the Whole World Over: Black Women and Internationalism; New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition; and Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism and Racial Violence.

Dr. Blain’s writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, Foreign Affairs and more. She frequently offers commentary on international, national and local media outlets, such as BBC, PBS, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and Al Jazeera. She is the recipient of more than a dozen prestigious awards and fellowships, including a W.E.B. Du Bois Fellowship at Harvard University and fellowships from New America, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the Ford Foundation. In 2018, she was appointed to the Organization of American Historians’ Distinguished Lectureship Program. She is a widely sought-after speaker on United States history, African American history, African Diaspora Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies.