The Journal of African American History is seeking submissions for a 2027 special issue titled “Black Women’s History in the Twenty-First Century: Engaging the Future.”

The issue will provide an opportunity to reflect seriously on the state of scholarship on Black women in the United States as well as to reshape thinking about the impact of Black women on US society. Collected articles will not only examine the dominant narratives in the historiography of Black women that have emerged in the twenty-first century but will also break ground for new explorations in the field.

Guest editors Karen Cook Bell and Hettie V. Williams invite article manuscripts that analyze the lives, labors, wartime experiences, and legal battles of Black women and their self-making practices, which allowed them to navigate slavery, freedom, Jane and Jim Crowism, and both civil and human rights labyrinths. Potential topics include:

• Slavery and abolition
• Black women’s resistance
• War and gender violence
• Emancipation
• Economic development
• Culture (e.g., education, religion)
• Migration and mobility
• Intellectualism
• Black internationalism
• Social and political movements (e.g., Black feminism, Black Lives Matter)
• Politics
• Black women’s queer history
• Black girlhood
• Reproductive justice
• Black women’s health and wellness

Submissions are due January 1, 2026. More information is available on The Journal of African American History website.

The Journal of African American History, founded in 1916, is an official publication of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). Now in its second century, this award-winning journal publishes original scholarly articles and book reviews on the African American experience from its earliest phases to the more recent past.