Not Straight, Not White by Kevin J. Mumford

It specifically locates the rise of hate in the Reagan era and the larger rightward turn in politics and values, Mumford said.

The book unearths a series of relatively high-profile bias crimes in the 1980s, including assaults, murders, threats and vandalism aimed toward Blacks, Asian Americans, gays, Jews and Arabs.

Mumford will use his fellowship to work on a book project, “The Strange Career of Hate: Bias Crime and the Politics of Diversity.” The book traces the anti-hate movement back to the end of the civil rights campaign when Black and liberal legislators pushed for a new kind of policy – the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990. He is the author of “Not Straight, Not White: Black Gay Men from the March on Washington to the AIDS Crisis” (University of North Carolina Press, 2016), about the unique challenges faced by Black gay men. He also is interested in the writing of biography and public history, particularly in how historians can address important social issues for audiences within and outside the university. Mumford’s research focuses on race, politics and sexuality in America, and how struggles over social difference and belonging have unfolded in cities and institutions. They were chosen through a rigorous peer-review process from almost 3,000 applicants, according to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation’s press release. Mumford is one of 184 artists, writers, scholars and scientists who were awarded fellowships. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign history professor Kevin Mumford has been awarded a 2021 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Drawing on an extensive archive of newspapers, pornography, and film, as well as government documents, organizational records, and personal papers, Mumford sheds new light on four volatile decades in the protracted battle of black gay men for affirmation and empowerment in the face of pervasive racism and homophobia.CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Examining the lives of both famous and little-known black gay activists-from James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin to Joseph Beam and Brother Grant-Michael Fitzgerald-Mumford analyzes the ways in which movements for social change both inspired and marginalized black gay men. In locating the rise of black gay identities in historical context, Kevin Mumford explores how activists, performers, and writers rebutted negative stereotypes and refused sexual objectification. This compelling book recounts the history of black gay men from the 1950s to the 1990s, tracing how the major movements of the times-from civil rights to black power to gay liberation to AIDS activism-helped shape the cultural stigmas that surrounded race and homosexuality. The disavowal of Brother Grant-Michael Fitzgerald.Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.

Not Straight, Not White by Kevin J. Mumford