I’m the Director of the Center for Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield. My new book, The First Migrants: How Black Homesteaders’ Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America’s Great Migration, tells the epic story of Black Americans homesteading in the Great Plains after the Civil War. The First Migrants was a finalist for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History book award and the Western Writers of America book award for history. My first book, Homesteading the Plains: Toward a New History, examines the Homestead Act of 1862, one of the most important social policies ever enacted in the United States.
I have a passion for making history accessible for broad audiences through my writing, public speaking, teaching, and work with museums.
The banner photo was taken in the vicinity of what was once Empire, Wyoming, a Black homesteader enclave in the Great Plains.