On April 17, 2024, the Ƶ Center for New Deal Studies was pleased to welcome historian to the Gage Gallery for a lecture entitled, “The New Deal and the Transformation of Black Life in America.” Dr. Scott is a professor of United States history at Morgan State University, and the chair of the Department of History, Geography and Museum Studies. He was invited to speak by former his student and current visiting assistant professor of history at Roosevelt, professor Gigi Davis. According to professor Davis, her career as a historian began during one of Dr. Scott’s classes, when he said to her, “You look like an intellectual historian.” The impact of mentorship in higher education cannot be understated.
During Dr. Scott’s visit to Roosevelt, he discussed his anthropologic and historically based research on the impact of the New Deal policies on Black Americans and the Great Migration. Students, faculty, and community members were treated to anecdotes about how a conversation with his grandmother led Dr. Scott to exploring how economic policy impacted the mass displacement of Black Americans from the south to the north after WWII. According to Dr. Scott, if immigration is a central principle of American society, the story of the Great Migration was framed to fit into this American mythos. Further, Dr. Scott asserts that the Great Migration is often contextualized as having been instigated by racialized violence in the American south, but that may not be the case. What census data shows historians is that the greatest resettlement of Black Americans took place when lynchings were at their lowest and when New Deal policies were disproportionately benefiting white Americans. This mass migration also took place after Black Americans returned home from WWII. Those veterans were then able to pursue higher education and the northern jobs that followed.
The story woven by Dr. Scott illustrated the importance of anecdotal research to the preservation of history. The conversation discussed the intersectionality of history, the economy, and social justice, and did so in an informed yet personal manner. The lecture concluded with a lively discussion between Dr. Scott and audience members, that touched upon the role of sociology in history, as well as the impact of history on contemporary society. Dr. Scott concluded that discussion by saying, “There is no bad question. There is no bad research project. I think social science inquiry should never stop. We’re constantly churning, scientifically and intellectually, to come up with better answers.” This lecture was emblematic of Dr. Scott’s message, of continuing to ask questions to better understand our history and each other.
Dr. Scott is a professor of United States history at Morgan State University and chair of the Department of History, Geography, and Museum Studies. In 1998, he won the James Rawley Prize for the best book in Race Relations History for Contempt and Pity: Social Science and the Image of the Damaged Black Psyche, 1880-1996.
