David Blight in conversation with Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

JANUARY 22, 2025

5:00 PM Book Talk
6:00 PM Reception

David W. Blight in conversation with Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II about: White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy (Liveright, 2024)

One of the most pernicious and persistent myths in the United States is the association of Black skin with poverty. Though there are forty million more poor white people than Black people, most Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, continue to think of poverty—along with issues like welfare, unemployment, and food stamps—as solely a Black problem. What are the historical causes and political consequences that result from this myth?

The Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, a leading advocate for the rights of the poor and the “closest person we have to Dr. King” (Cornel West), addresses these questions in “White Poverty.” Analyzing what has changed since the 1930s, when the face of American poverty was white, Barber, along with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, addresses white poverty as a hugely neglected subject that just might provide the key to mitigating racism and bringing together tens of millions of working class and impoverished Americans.

Sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, the MacMillan Center at Yale University; and the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School. 

Co-sponsored by Belonging at Yale, Greater New Haven NAACP, and The Campaign School at Yale.