Marcy Sacks

Associate Professor
U.S. History/African-American History

Office: Robinson Hall 211
Phone: 517/629-0298
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Education

B.S., Cornell University (Industrial and Labor Relations), 1991; M.A., University of California at Berkeley (History), 1993; Ph.D. University of California at Berkeley, 1999 (History)

Courses Offered

African American History, U.S. History to 1877, Race and Ethnicity in America, History of Sports in the U.S.

Scholarly Activity

Current research projects:

"The Other Side of Reconstruction: Black Northerners Confront the Aftermath of Southern Emancipation."

Books:

Joe Louis: Sports and Race in Twentieth Century America. Routledge.  Forthcoming.
Before Harlem: The Black Experience in New York City Before World War I.  University of Pennsylvania Press (October 2006).

Selected Articles:

• "Behind the Brown Mask: Joe Louis's Face and the Construction of Racial Mythologies," in ConFiguring America: Iconic Figures, Visuality, and the American Identity, Michael Fuchs, ed.  Forthcoming.
• "Rand Paul and the Danger of Careless Rhetoric About Civil Rights."  Christian Science Monitor 5/26/2010.
• Entry for "Harlem Property Owners Association," in The Encyclopedia of African American History.  Facts on File, 2010.
• Entries for "The Emancipation Monument" and "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men" in The Essential Lincoln: A Political Encyclopedia.  Congressional Quarterly Press, forthcoming.
• Entries for "Harlem," "The New York Age," and "The New Negro," in The Encyclopedia of African American History.  Oxford University Press, 2009.
•  "Recreating Black New York at Century's End," in Slavery in New York, Ira Berlin and Leslie Harris, ed. The New Press, 2005: 325-349; book published in conjunction with 2005 exhibit at the New-York Historical Society.
•  "'To Show Who Was in Charge': Police Repression of New York City's Black Population at the Turn of the Twentieth Century," Journal of Urban History. Vol. 31, No. 6 (September 2005): 799-819.
• "'To Be a Man and Not a Lackey:' Black Men, Work, and the Construction of Manhood in Gilded Age New York City," American Studies.  Vol. 45, No. 1 (Summer 2004): 39-63.
• "We Rise and Fall Together: Separatism and the Demand for Equality by Albany's Black Citizens, 1827-1860."  Afro-Americans in New York Life and History.  Vol. 20, no. 2 (July 1996), pp. 7-33.

Research Interests:

African American History, U.S. Social and Cultural History.

Awards:

• Residency Research Fellow, Institute for Historical Studies, University of Michigan (2006-2007)
• National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship ($40,000; 2006-2007)
• Seminar Participant, "Slavery and Public History," sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and the Gilder Lehrman Institute (Columbia University, August 8-11, 2004)
• Faculty Diversity Award, Albion College, 2003 (sponsored by the President's Advisory Committee on Multicultural Affairs)
• Faculty Development Grants, Albion College, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
• History and Culture Fellow, Albion College, 2000-2001
• Emerson Grant, Hamilton College, 1998
• New Jersey Historical Commission Research Grant, 1995-1996
• Eugene Irving McCormac Graduate Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 1995-1996
• New York State Library Research Resident, 1995
• Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor, University of California, 1995