June 12, 2023

Ten Must-Read Books for Juneteenth 2023

June 19th, or Juneteenth, commemorates the 1865 proclamation for the freedom of enslaved people in Texas, but it also has come to broadly celebrate Black American culture and the continuing fight by Black Americans for liberation and equality. The books...

March 1, 2023

Twenty Books to Read for Women’s History Month 2023

Join us in celebrating the cultural, social, and leadership contributions women have played throughout history. From their critical roles in politics and advocacy to the fight against sexual violence, the underrepresentation of women in the workplace and scholarship to unsung...

June 5, 2020

We Stand in Solidarity with All Those Peacefully Protesting Injustice

Columbia University Press strongly condemns the unjust killing of George Floyd and the deaths of many who went before him. We protest the systemic racism that plagues our country, and we must dedicate ourselves to eradicating it. We stand in...

May 19, 2020

Shennette Garrett-Scott Featured on ABWH-TV

“Garrett-Scott reclaims the stories of black women who—as bank founders and clerks, investors, aspiring home owners, loan seekers, and, yes, as those denied loans—asserted their own economic ethos. A compelling account of black women’s ideas about money, savings, lending, obligation,...

April 2, 2020

Shennette Garrett-Scott wins the Darlene Clark Hine Award for Banking on Freedom

We are so pleased to announce that Shennette Garrett-Scott has won the Darlene Clark Hine Award from the Organization for American Historians (OAH) for her book Banking on Freedom: Black Women in U.S. Finance Before the New Deal. The Darlene...

February 7, 2020

Book Excerpts! A Haven and a Hell, Banking on Freedomand Threatening Property

This week, we have explored Black life in the context of property and finance through the scholarship of Lance Freeman, Shennette Garrett-Scott, and Elizabeth A. Herbin-Triant. Today, we invite your to grab a warm drink and settle into a cozy...

February 6, 2020

Book Talk: Black Life and White Supremacy in Property, Finance, and the City

 We are continuing our feature of Lance Freeman, Shennette Garrett-Scott and Elizabeth A. Herbin-Triant today with this book talk moderated by Ansley T. Erickson, co-editor of Educating Harlem: A Century of Schooling and Resistance in a Black Community. Watch their...

February 5, 2020

Q&A: A Conversation About the History of U.S. Property Restriction and Finance After the Civil War

Take a walk today and look around. Observe the people strolling through the parks and neighborhoods. Chances are, they vary in background and cultural heritage, but this was not always the case. To kick off Black History Month, Noni Carter...

March 22, 2019

In the Black: A Brief History of Early Black Women Investors

In the hilarious Showtime series Black Monday, set in the late 1980s, Dawn Towner (played by Regina Hall in gloriously shimmering peacock shades of eye shadow) is the only female head trader on Wall Street. Towner holds a small stake...

March 21, 2019

Book Excerpt! Banking on Freedom: Black Women in U.S. Finance Before the New Deal (introduction and chapter 2)

“Shennette Garrett-Scott’s compelling and highly original account demonstrates that, for black people, banks were more than financial institutions. In the hands of black women, capital accumulation, credit, and insurance became community building practices, mutual aid, strategies for collective survival, and...

March 20, 2019

Five African American Women Pioneers in U.S. Finance

Shennette Garrett-Scott

Between 1888 and 1930, African Americans opened more than a hundred banks and thousands of other financial institutions. One of those institutions was St. Luke Bank in Richmond, Virginia: the first and only bank run by black women. In her...

March 5, 2019

New Book Tuesday! On Bicycles, Banking on Freedom, Jacques Schiffrin, Chromatic Modernity, and More!

Our weekly listing of new books is now available! On Bicycles A 200-Year History of Cycling in New York City Evan Friss Banking on Freedom Black Women in U.S. Finance Before the New Deal Shennette Garrett-Scott Chromatic Modernity Color, Cinema,...