AAFCS Community on Diversity and Inclusion - Book Discussion

All are invited to participate in the AAFCS Diversity and Inclusion book discussion on May 18, 2026, 6 p.m. Central. The book we will discuss is: Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights (2025) by Keisha Blain. 

About the book: In this timely and powerful work, Dr. Blain highlights the pivotal yet often overlooked role that Black women have played in shaping global human rights movements. Without Fear tells how, during American history, Black women made humans rights theirs: from worldwide travel and public advocacy in the global Black press to their work for the United Nations, they courageously and effectively moved human rights beyond an esoteric concept to an active, organizing principle. Acclaimed historian Keisha N. Blain tells the story of these women-from the well-known, like Ida B. Wells, Madam C. J. Walker, and Lena Horne, to those who are still less known, including Pearl Sherrod, Aretha McKinley, and Marguerite Cartwright. Blain captures human rights thinking and activism from the ground up with Black women at the center, working outside the traditional halls of power.