Black History Month Lecture 2024

Dr Fryar’s lecture, entitled ‘Fears of Jim Crow: Jamaica at the Dawn of the American Century’, opened with an account of the devastation caused during the 1907 Kingston earthquake, as recalled by survivors in the 1950s. She then examined the immediate aftermath of the ecological disaster, considering what the actions of Governor Alexander Swettenham can tell us about the complex entanglement of British sovereignty, US expansionism, and racial politics in the early twentieth-century colony.

Dr Fryar also provided a fascinating prehistory of Jamaica’s racial climate in the decades before the 1907 catastrophe. She explored British perceptions of the ‘incidental’ relationship between the labour of Black Jamaicans and the socio-economic fortunes of the verdant island, as expressed in late nineteenth-century travel writing and ethnographic studies of Jamaica.

Dr Fryar concluded her lecture by reflecting on recent personal experiences as a Black American woman working in UK Higher Education at a time when, she argued, Black and Indigenous studies have been suppressed.

We thank Dr Fryar for such a thought-provoking lecture and Professor Sarah Knott, Hilary Rodham Clinton Chair of Women’s History, for introducing Dr Fryar and chairing the Q&A. It was wonderful to have such a diverse and engaged audience for this year’s lecture and we look forward to welcoming attendees back to St John’s for future events.

You can watch a recording of the full lecture below.