College of Social Studies
The College of Social Studies (CSS) is a rigorous, multidisciplinary major focusing on History, Government, Political and Social Theory, and Economics. Founded in 1959, the CSS is reading and writing intensive, encouraging intellectual independence with weekly essays, small group Tutorials, and a vibrant intellectual environment.
Special Talk - Tuesday, October 3 at 4:30pm in Boger 114
Guest Speaker Nick Tabor will give the talk:
“You Can Never Rest, Because They Keep Coming”: On America’s Last Slave Ship and the Community It Created
Nick Tabor is the author of Africatown: America’s Last Slave Ship and the Community It Created, a blend of history and investigative journalism that traces Africatown’s development from the 1850s to the present day. He was a historical consultant on the documentary Descendant, which was presented on Netflix by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company in 2022. He previously worked at daily newspapers and on the editorial staff of New York Magazine. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.
Talk Description: The Africatown neighborhood in Mobile, Alabama, was established by survivors of the last slave ship to the US. It is the only community in the country created by West Africans who had personally been through the Middle Passage. More than 150 years after its founding, it’s still intact—but it’s inundated by industrial pollution, and many residents believe there’s a cancer epidemic. Activists from the community are trying to save it from extinction by transforming it into a destination for heritage tourism. Their efforts got a boost when the wreckage of the ship was identified in 2019.
Africatown’s long history of resistance and survival gives us a rare chance to study how systemic racism—and especially environmental racism—have played out across the decades, and how communities can seize the levers of change.