Blackwell, Joyce 1954–

(Joyce Blackwell-Johnson)

PERSONAL:

Born February 11, 1954, in Roxboro, NC; daughter of Joseph B. and Eunice Blackwell; divorced; children: Oriana Johnson, Calvin Johnson, Jr. Education: North Carolina Central University, B.A., M.A.; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History and Political Science, Saint Augustine's College, 1315 Oakwood Ave., Raleigh, NC 27610. E-mail—Jblackwell-johnson@st-aug.edu.

CAREER:

Meredith College, Raleigh, NC, former assistant professor of history; North Carolina State University, Raleigh, former adjunct assistant professor of history; University of North Carolina, Charlotte, former assistant professor of history; North Carolina Central University, Durham, former assistant professor of history; Saint Augustine's College, Raleigh, began as assistant professor, became associate professor and chair of the department of history and political science, currently professor of history and dean of the division of social sciences.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Oxford Round Table Scholar, 2007; fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities.

WRITINGS:

No Peace without Freedom: Race and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915-1975, Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale, IL), 2004.

(Associate editor) The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict, Academic Press (Washington, DC), 2nd edition, 2008.

Contributor to books, including Black Women in America: A Historical Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press, 2005; and Conflict and Allegiance: Black Religious Activism and the U.S. Middle East Crisis, Georgetown University Press, 2008. Contributor to periodicals, including Peace and Change: Journal of Peace Research. Reviewer for the Journal of American History; member of advisory board, H-Peace.

SIDELIGHTS:

Joyce Blackwell is a professor of history and dean of the division of social sciences at Saint Augustine's College in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has previously taught at Meredith College, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina, and North Carolina Central University. Blackwell has taught classes in African American history, modern American history, and U.S. women's history, as well as a seminar in African American studies. Her primary research interest is the history of peace activism in the United States. Her No Peace without Freedom: Race and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915-1975 is a study of the role that black women activists played in one of the oldest radical peace organizations in the United States. According to a statement posted on the Southern Illinois University Press Web site, Blackwell's book "explores how black women, fueled by the desire to eradicate racial injustice, compelled the white leadership of the WILPF to revisit its own conceptions of peace and freedom."

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom originally was formed to prevent American involvement in World War I. The organization first allowed black women to join their ranks in 1915. Blackwell's study chronicles the role that black women played in the organization from World War I until the Vietnam War. Among the members were such varied figures as Angela Davis, Shirley Chisholm, and Eartha Kitt. Blackwell shows that, among other accomplishments, black members forced the white leadership of the organization to rethink their definitions of both peace and freedom as they considered the historical situation of blacks in American society. She also documents the involvement of many black peace activists with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. As Carrie Foster noted in the Journal of Southern History: "Of the numerous studies of women and peace published in recent years, only Joyce Blackwell's recent work on the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) focuses on the role and impact of race." Floris Barnett Cash in the Journal of African American History concluded: "Blackwell has written the first examination of African American women's collective peace activism and documents a neglected aspect of 20th century African American history."

In a statement posted on the H-Net Online, Blackwell noted: "I am currently working on a project entitled, Race and Class in ‘Hickstown’: A Study of Self-Empowerment in a Durham, North Carolina Community, 1867-1985. This study examines how an impoverished community successfully engages in grassroots activism against state government. The residents of the community are given the opportunity to tell their stories."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Journal of African American History, fall, 2005, Floris Barnett Cash, review of No Peace without Freedom: Race and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915-1975, p. 439.

Journal of Southern History, February, 2006, Carrie Foster, review of No Peace without Freedom, p. 211.

ONLINE

H-Net Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (June 2, 2008), Joyce Blackwell, statement about her research interests.

St. Augustine's College Web site,http://www.st-aug.edu/ (May 2, 2008), author profile.

Southern Illinois University Press Web site,http://www.siu.edu/ (May 2, 2008), statement about No Peace without Freedom.