Rate My Professor Adriane Lentz-Smith

Her research examines Black freedom struggles and state power in the long twentieth century, with expertise in African Americans' civil rights history in the 20th century and African American soldiers. Lentz-Smith is the author of Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I (Harvard University Press, 2009), which received the Honor Book Award from the National Black Caucus of the American Library Association in 2010. Other key publications include "Passports to Adventure: African Americans and the US Security Project" (American Quarterly, 2016), "The Unbearable Whiteness of Grand Strategy" (2021), "Fighting Jim Crow in a World of Empire" (2022), "The Laws Have Hurt Me: Violence, Violation, and Black Women's Struggles for Civil Rights" (Southern Cultures, 2020), and "On the Experiences of Black Historians" (Modern American History, 2021). She serves on the editorial board of Modern American History (2016-2027) and has held roles such as Co-Chair of the Program Committee for the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (2017) and Member-at-Large of the Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, U.S. Department of State (2018-2024). Lentz-Smith was a National Humanities Center Fellow (2020-21) while drafting chapters for her current project, The Slow Death of Sagon Penn: State Violence and the Twilight of Civil Rights, which traces state violence and white supremacy in the post-1960s era through a 1980s police encounter in San Diego. Earlier awards include the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship (2003) and Provost's Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of North Carolina (2005). She engages broad publics as a historical consultant for U.S. and European documentaries, television, and podcasts; featured in PBS programs such as Voice of Freedom, Forgotten Hero, American Diplomat, and The Great War; and through invited talks at venues like Jazz at Lincoln Center, Truman Library Institute, and National Museum of African American History and Culture. As host of "The Ethics of Now," she facilitates discussions on pressing issues with authors, journalists, policymakers, and scholars.