Abolition/Resistance: Works from the Alan Sussman Rare Book Collection

Kristin Waters wrote the catalogue and curated the exhibition in the Stevenson Library of Bard College in Spring 2020. It has since been incorporated into a permanent online exhibition and teaching resource.

“Why, in the twenty-first century, do so few people know about an early nineteenth-century thinker, Maria W. Stewart, about the roots of Black political theory, about the thousands and more of brilliant women and people of color whose accomplishments have not been showcased in scholarly or popular venues? Why is this so when the airwaves, bookstores, theaters, public monuments, internet, and imaginations are so full of stories about the Euro-American heroes of the day? Why were so many people upset when Michelle Obama told the truth about “waking up every morning in a house built by slaves”? The epistemic obliteration, the burying of knowledge, the epistemicide is ongoing and in some places it is almost absolute. Succeeding in her struggle against these practices, Maria W. Stewart is a hero and a warrior.” (16) – Kristin Waters, Maria W. Stewart and the Roots of Black Political Thought (2021)