ABOUT
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Donna Murch is an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and is the president of the New Brunswick chapter of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT. She is the author of Assata Taught Me: State Violence, Racial Capitalism, and the Movement for Black Lives, and Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California.
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BOOKS
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ASSATA TAUGHT ME
STATE VIOLENCE, RACIAL CAPITALISM, AND THE
MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES Drawing its title from one of America's foremost revolutionaries, this collection of thought-provoking essays by award-winning Panther scholar Donna Murch explores how social protest is challenging our current system of state violence and mass incarceration. “Donna Murch is one of the sharpest, most incisive, and elegant writers on racism, radicalism, and struggle today. In this collection of essays assessing the current contours of the contemporary movement against racism in the United States, Murch combines a historian’s rigor with a cultural critic’s insights and the passionate expression of someone deeply engaged with the politics, debates, and key questions confronting activists and organizers today. This is a smart and sophisticated book that should be read and studied by everyone in search of answers to the profound crises that continue to confront this country.” —Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation |
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LIVING FOR THE CITY
MIGRATION, EDUCATION, AND THE RISE OF THE
BLACK PANTHER PARTY IN OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 2011 Phillis Wheatley Book Prize, Northeast Black Studies Association 2011 Choice Outstanding Academic Title In this nuanced and groundbreaking history, Donna Murch argues that the Black Panther Party started with a study group. Drawing on oral history and untapped archival sources, she explains how a relatively small city with a recent history of African American settlement produced such compelling and influential forms of Black Power politics. “Well-researched, smoothly written... A testament to the liberating impact of higher education... It is quite doubtful if any [study] will surpass this one in terms of imagination, clear writing, deft scholarship and weighty conclusions.” —Gerald Horne, Journal of American Studies “Offers a fresh perspective on East Bay black activism... An engaging work that adds to the expanding literature on the interplay between black migration and political mobilization.” —Journal of African American History |
SELECTED ESSAYS
The Guardian | April 27, 2021
In contrast to the stereotype of the union worker as a white man in a hard hat, today’s labor movement skews black, brown and female. |
The Guardian | June 8, 2019
A recent essay claims the civil rights leader was present during a rape, but the evidence is shaky and there’s reason to be skeptical |
Boston Review | April 9, 2019
The success of OxyContin hinged on racially bifurcated understandings of addiction. The fundamental division between “dope” and medicine, after all, has always been the race and class of users. |