How UW–Madison professors work to collapse the town and gown divide and illustrate how history is ever affecting our present
This spring, four UW–Madison professors continue to bring the Wisconsin Idea to life through their work with Justified Anger, a community-rooted initiative launched by The Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development. The initiative began in 2013 when Rev. Dr. Alexander Gee published a widely circulated essay in The Cap Times titled: “Justified Anger: Rev. Alex Gee Says Madison Is Failing Its African American Community”. The piece detailed his personal experiences as a Black man living in Madison and sparked a local reckoning around race, equity, and historical accountability.
Following the popularity of Gee’s essay, Black History for a New Day was constructed: a course designed specifically for non-Black Wisconsin residents to deepen their understanding of African American history, the legacies of racism and structural power, and ongoing freedom struggles. The course aspires not only to educate, but to activate. With an emphasis on mobilizing white community members toward racial justice, it has since evolved into a nine-part lecture series.
Shortly after its creation, the course expanded to include key scholars, like Dr. Steven Kantrowitz, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2014, Professor Alexander Shashko and Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara joined the teaching cohort, lending their expertise and public engagement ethos to the project. In the last decade, more than 4,000 community members have participated in the course.
Lecture titles have included “A Short History of the Long Civil Rights Movement”, “Wisconsin and the Struggle for Justice in Postwar America”, and “Black Music and the Soul of America”. Each session spans two hours and is followed by small group discussions, where participants engage more personally with the material and with one another.
Faculty from the Department of African American Studies have long championed the value of public scholarship, bridging the gap between the university and the broader community through accessible and nuanced teaching. “The chance to lecture outside the classroom is a cherished opportunity to engage with different audiences across a wide range of knowledge and experience,” Alexander Shashko says. “In this case, so many of the attendees were witnesses to the historical events I’m discussing and that creates a really rewarding exchange of anecdotes and interpretations of 20th-century American history, with the lectures hopefully providing some context and perhaps new ways of thinking about the past. It’s the Wisconsin Idea in action…a dialogue between academia and the public, at its best.”
Dr. Steve Kantrowitz, African American Studies affiliate and Plaenert Bascom Professor of History at UW–Madison, also underscores the program’s enduring significance, noting: “Black History for a New Day is an opportunity to reach community members who are hungry to understand how we got where we are, but whose lives haven’t given them the opportunity to explore those questions historically. From the beginning, our hope has been that a historical perspective will give people a better sense of why the world looks and acts the way it does, and how previous generations have sought to make it better.”
As Justified Anger marks its eleventh year in Madison, it remains a vital space for inquiry and shared responsibility, embodying the university’s highest commitments to public good.