Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies

Dr. Jakobi Williams is the Ruth N. Halls Professor and Chair of the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies (AAADS) and holds a joint appointment in the Department of History. He is also the founding Director of the Black Humanities in the Midwest (BHIM) Africana Studies Research Center, a multi-campus Indiana University initiative designed to advance research, graduate training, and public engagement in Africana Studies.

Under Dr. Williams’s leadership, BHIM is supported by a landmark award which is the largest humanities grant in IU’s history, and AAADS anchors three interrelated Applied Africana Studies research laboratories dedicated to expanding, deepening, and amplifying scholarship on the histories, cultures, and intellectual traditions of Black and Africana diasporic communities across Indiana and the broader 12-state Midwest. BHIM extends IU’s 2030 strategic vision by strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration, system-wide faculty development, graduate pipelines, and community partnerships throughout the Midwest and beyond.

In addition to his research leadership, Dr. Williams serves as Director of the Thomas I. Atkins Living Learning Center, one of Indiana University’s most distinguished residential academic communities. Under his direction, the Atkins Living Learning Center continues its 30-year tradition of academic excellence, leadership development, and social responsibility, serving as a transformative intellectual home for students committed to scholarship and civic engagement.

Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago (Englewood), Dr. Williams brings both scholarly rigor and lived experience to his work. Prior to joining Indiana University, he served as Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky, an adjunct professor at UCLA, and a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He earned his B.A. in History from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and both his M.A. in African American Studies and Ph.D. in History from UCLA.

Dr. Williams is an internationally recognized scholar of Civil Rights, Black Power, social justice movements, and African American political history. He has delivered hundreds of invited lectures domestically and abroad on the history and contemporary relevance of freedom movements. His expertise has led him to serve as a consultant on civil rights history and social justice initiatives for organizations including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Civil Rights Museum, the Social Justice Initiative at the University of Illinois,Chicago, and the Kairos Center for Religion, Rights, and Social Justice, which helped found the New Poor People’s Campaign led by Rev. Dr. William Barber II.

His award-winning book, From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago, published by the University of North Carolina Press in the prestigious John Hope Franklin Series, examines grassroots coalition politics and the transformation of urban political movements. The book served as a foundational text for the Warner Bros. film Judas and the Black Messiah.

Dr. Williams’s scholarship has appeared in leading academic venues including the Journal of Civil and Human Rights; Black Perspectives; Black Women, Gender, and Families; Journal of Pan African Studies, and volumes published by the University of Georgia Press, University of Wisconsin Press, and The New Press. His public scholarship has also appeared in Jacobin, Tikkun, Mother Jones, Vox, Gawker, and the Indianapolis Star. He has been featured in numerous media outlets including NBC News, Time, Vox, NPR, and multiple regional and national broadcast programs.

Among his recent honors are a Mellon Foundation fellowship with the Black Metropolitan Research Consortium, a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, a National Humanities Center Fellowship, and participation in the Big Ten Academic Alliance Academic Leadership Program.

Dr. Williams is currently completing two major book projects that extend his transnational research agenda. Neighborhoods First examines the Chicago based organizations that formed the original multiracial Rainbow Coalition in 1968, demonstrating the centrality of Black grassroots organizing to coalition politics. Global Call of Power to the People explores how movements in Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Palestine, Italy, and India modeled their organizing strategies on the Black Panther Party, often without direct contact, highlighting the global resonance of African American freedom struggles and the transnational impact of grassroots political activism.

Through his scholarship, institutional leadership, and community engagement, Dr. Williams continues to position AAADS and Indiana University as national leaders in Black humanities research, graduate training, and public facing scholarship.

• African American History
• 20th Century United States History
• Black Panther Party
• Black Power/Civil Rights Movement
• Social Justice Movements
• Chicago Politics
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Under Contract

• “Chapter 37. Civil rights in the 20th and 21st-century polis”, Editors Carl Nightingale, Alexia Yates, and Mariana Dantas, Oxford Handbook of Global Urban History, Oxford University Press.
• “‘You Can’t Stop Us’: The Young Lords Organization and Local Political Activism in the Lincoln Park Neighborhood of Chicago, 1966-1974”, Editors: Erik Gellman, Simon Balto, and Marcia Walker-McWilliams, New Histories of Black Chicago, University of Illinois Press.

Books

• From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013. John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture.
• Co-Editor, with Dionne Bennett, Candace Moore, and Ulli K. Ryder. Revolutions of the Mind: Cultural Studies in the African Diaspora Project, 1996-2002. Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Afro-American Studies Publications, 2003.

Most Recent Articles

• “Power to the People: A Curriculum for Teaching the Black Panther Party and the Transition from Civil Rights to Black Power”, in Hasan Jeffries, ed., Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement, The Harvey Goldberg Series for Understanding and Teaching History, University of Wisconsin Press, November 2019, p. 185-196.
• “You can kill the revolutionary, but you can’t kill the revolution”: A Reflection on Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton’s Life and Legacy 50 Years after his Assassination, Harvard Blackletter Law Journal, Volume 35, September, 2019, p. 77-83.
• “The Legacy of King’s Influence From Black Power to Black Lives Matter”, in How Far Have We Come?: Dr. King’s Legacy in the 21st Century, The National Civil Rights Museum, 2019, p. 72-77. https://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/compendium

2026                Bob Zaltsberg Laurie McRobbie, “Celebrating Black History Month During a Time of Rising Division”, Noon Edition, WFIU/WTIU’s public affairs radio show NPR/PBS member stations for south central Indiana, February 13. https://www.ipm.org/show/noonedition/2026-02-11/celebrating-black-history-month-during-a-time-of-rising-division

2024                Daniel Johnson, “Chicago To Mark 55th Anniversary Of Fred Hampton Assassination With Cultural Events”, Black Enterprise, December 4. https://www.blackenterprise.com/chicago-anniversary-fred-hampton-assassination-events/

2024                “The Story Behind the Original Rainbow Coalition”, Code Switch, NPR November 10. Re-aired in response to 2024 Presidential Election results. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2023/01/23/1150867899/how-the-rainbow-coalition-was-formed-and-its-legacy

2023                Brian Conybeare, “ Professor Jakobi Williams talks with ABC57’s Brian Conybeare about Affirmative Action ruling”, ABC 57 News, South Bend, Indiana, June 29. https://www.abc57.com/news/professor-jakobi-williams-talks-with-abc57s-brian-conybeare-about-affirmative-action-ruling

2023                Grace Whaley, “How to celebrate Juneteenth in a meaningful way”, TriState Hompage, Evansville, Indiana, June 19. https://www.tristatehomepage.com/news/how-to-celebrate-juneteenth-in-a-meaningful-way/

2023                “Why do we celebrate Juneteenth? How can we do so meaningfully? IU experts weigh in”, News at IU, Indiana University, June 12. https://news.iu.edu/live/news/31727-why-do-we-celebrate-juneteenth-how-can-we-do-so

2023                “Tracing the Ripples of the NHC’s Work: Jakobi Williams”, National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, NC, April 17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmId2xfenRA

2023                “Black Voices: students are being told to ignore history”, Indiana Daily Student, Bloomington, IN, February 21. https://www.idsnews.com/article/2023/02/black-voices-students-are-being-told-to-ignore-history

2023                “Fight for Equality for Everyone in your School District”, Homestead High School Video Announcements, Homestead High School’s Media Program, Fort Wayne, IN, February 17. https://youtu.be/rAzB10JYVvA

2023                Karli Van Cleave, “Blackface dates back to the 1800s, professor explains racist implications”, 21 Alive News (WPTA), Fort Wayne, IN,February 9. https://www.21alivenews.com/2023/02/10/blackface-dates-back-1800s-professor-explains-racist-implications/

2023                Rachel Smith “Racist housing clauses are still on the books in Bloomington. How to check your own deed”, The Herald Times, Bloomington, IN,February 8. https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/local/2023/02/08/bloomington-monroe-county-housing-deeds-still-contain-racist-language/69847256007/

2023                “On MLK Day, Daughter Calls for Bold Action Over Words”, CBS 4 News (Indianapolis) and Fox 59 (WXIN Indianapolis) January 16. https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/on-mlk-day-daughter-calls-for-bold-action-over-words/

2021                Ranjani Chakraborty and Melissa Hirsch, “Why the US government Murdered Fred Hampton: What we aren’t taught about the Black Panther Party”, Vox, June 2, (3 million views on YouTube). https://www.vox.com/videos/2021/6/2/22464896/why-the-us-government-murdered-fred-hampton

2021                Olivia B. Waxman and Video by Arpita Aneja, “With Free Medical Clinics and Patient Advocacy, the Black Panthers Created a Legacy in Community Health That Still Exists Amid COVID-19”, TIME, February 25. (27,000 views on YouTube) https://time.com/5937647/black-panther-medical-clinics-history-school-covid-19/

2020: Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship.
2020: Office of Vice President for International Affairs, Faculty Exchange Program, Indiana University.
2020: Course Development Grant, Russian and East European Institute (REEI), the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center (IAUNRC), and the Center for the Study of Global Change (CGC), Indiana University.
2019: The Summer Institute on Tenure and Professional Advancement (SITPA), Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, at Duke University.
2017: Big Ten Academic Alliance, Academic Leadership Program
2016: National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship
2016: National Humanities Center Fellowship
2015: Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society, Faculty Seed Grant, Indiana University.
2015: College of Arts and Humanities Institute, Travel Research Grant, Indiana University.
2015: Office of Vice President for International Affairs, Overseas Conference Grant, Indiana University.
2015: Institute for Advanced Studies, Individual Research Award, Indiana University.
2015: Institute for Advanced Studies, Consultation Fellowship, Indiana University.
2015: Gateway Program Grant, Indiana University.