A Conversation with Sarah Lewis

The Program in African American History is pleased to host a conversation with two of the nation's leading Black art historians Sarah Lewis (Harvard University) and Huey Copeland (University of Pittsburgh).

PAAH Director Jim Downs and Professor Copeland will interview Dr. Lewis about her much-anticipated new book, Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America. In this masterpiece of historical detective work, Sarah Lewis exposes one of the most damaging lies in American history. There was a time when Americans were confronted with the fictions shoring up the nation’s racial regime and learned to disregard them. The true significance of this hidden history has gone unseen—until now. The surprising catalyst occurred in the nineteenth century when the Caucasian War—the fight for independence in the Caucasus that coincided with the end of the US Civil War—revealed the instability of the entire regime of racial domination. Images of the Caucasus region and peoples captivated the American public but also showed that the place from which we derive “Caucasian” for whiteness was not white at all. Cultural and political figures ranging from P. T. Barnum to Frederick Douglass, W. E .B. Du Bois to Woodrow Wilson recognized such fictions and more, exploiting, unmasking, critiquing, or burying them.

Sarah Lewis, is regarded as one of the most insightful and eloquent speakers on race, visuality, and culture in America. Her Vision & Justice initiative sparked a critical national conversation on the intersection of visual representation and racial justice.

Hosted by the Program in African American History.