With years of researching race and its effects on sports and education, professor of Sociology and African and African American Studies Lori Latrice Martin has published two books that aim to highlight black women’s leadership in social movements.
“Black Community Uplift and the Myth of the American Dream,” published last year, focuses on the politics of respectability established by black Baptist women in the early 1900s.
Politics of respectability refers to attempts by marginalized groups to show their social values as being continuous and compatible with dominant values, rather than challenging the mainstream for what they see as its failure to accept difference, Martin said. She said she wanted to revisit that framework and see how it is applied in contemporary times.
“It is very important when we are looking at a lot of the things that are happening in American society today that we also put them in an appropriate historical context,” Martin said. “That helps us understand how it relates to things that have happened in the past, what we are experiencing now and what we could potentially do to bring about any necessary changes in the future.”
Martin published her second book, “Black Women as Leaders: Challenging and Transforming Society,” in March. She said she was was inspired by the increase in black women being elected to public office and involved in social movements.
Martin currently teaches about African Americans in sports, and there are chapters in each book that look at activism and athletes. Martin said she believes it is relevant, especially given recent protests in the NFL and reactions to them.
Martin is also teaching a graduate level course on African Americans in sociology, where she looks at sociology and how it impacts African American communities.
Most of Martin’s research focuses on race, wealth, equality and black poverty. She has also researched sociology, sports and the school-to-prison pipeline.
“I think that it is important for us to understand what is happening today within a broader context,” Martin said, “so if we are interested in being change-makers, that will help us and help transform society.”