Over 40 students and faculty attended the Sixth Annual Whitfield Bell Lecture on Nov. 4 at 4:30 p.m., where Assistant Professor of History Crystal Moten discussed her research on the role of black women during the Civil Rights Movement in Milwaukee, WI. She focused on the intersection between gender, culture, race and power in the discrimination of black women during this period.

Moten described how by filing complaints about their mistreatment in the workplace, black women were participating in the civil rights movement by making known to the public the day to day mistreatment that they faced. These complaints were filed in the 1950s, after the Fair Employment Discrimination Act was passed in Wisconsin in 1945. According to the State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, this act made it illegal to discriminate in the workplace against any person who was part of a protected class, which consisted of race, color, creed, ancestry and national origin in 1945.

Moten characterized these women’s “acts of resistance and strength” as a public rejection of the powerful discrimination they faced, and a way of reclaiming their own identity.

Moten provided examples of different cases from her research that were actually filed with the NAACP and other anti-discrimination groups at this time. She added that most of these cases were never brought to justice, but were simply a way to actively protest injustice.

Gillian Chan ’18, who attended the lecture, gained a better understanding that, regardless of skills or work ethic, black women were constantly mistreated and “diminished” in the workplace.

“Even if they reported discrimination, they knew it was most likely their reports wouldn’t change much because they weren’t taken seriously,” Chan said.

The Whitfield Bell Lecture is an annual event sponsored by the Department of History and the History Majors Committee. It honors Whitfield Bell ’35 who served the college for over 75 years as a student and editor of The Dickinsonian, a professor and later a trustee  of the college.

Moten, who came to Dickinson in 2013 as a post doctorate fellow, teaches classes in US history, urban history, African American history and women’s and gender history. According to Dickinson’s website, she is currently working on a book titled Raising a Lot of Hell: Black Women’s Economic Activism in Postwar Milwaukee, which focuses on the research outlined in her lecture.