His research interests are centered on questions of resistance and the social justice revolutions found within the historic African American community.  He is currently finalizing a book manuscript tentatively titled, Fred Hampton to Barack Obama: the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, the Origin of the Rainbow Coalition, and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago. Hampton was the young, idealistic, charismatic leader of the Black Panther Party (BPP) in Chicago brutally murdered by police officers while he slept.   His vision and activism helped to create, and unite, pockets of resistance found throughout local communities regardless of color and ethnicity.  Jakobi Williams’ examination of the Illinois BPP’s Rainbow Coalition demonstrates that there is a direct link involving racial coalition politics in Chicago the stretches from Fred Hampton to current U.S. President Barack Obama.  Prior to his research on Fred Hampton and the Illinois BPP, in 2003 he completed his first edited book, Revolutions of the Mind: Cultural Studies in the African Diaspora Project, 1996-2002.  The work provides an eclectic sample of the essays, reviews, conference proceedings, and programs that defined the UCLA Cultural Studies in the African Diaspora Project (CSADP), funded by the Ford Foundation.  He also contributed two articles to Revolutions of the Mind, one of which is entitled, “‘A Panic in All this Country’: Nat Turner’s Complex and Dynamic Religious Background,” which is an exploration of Turner’s life, personal philosophy, revolutionary thought and actions.  It looks particularly at the impact of Turner’s African, Afro-Christian, and European Christian religious backgrounds on his actions in Southampton County, Virginia.

Areas of Specialization

His fields of interest include African American history, 20^th century United States history, the Black Panther Party and the Black Power/Civil Rights movements.

About Me

I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago.  I received my B.A. in History and minor in Black American Studies from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (2000).  I earned both my M.A. in African American Studies (2002) and Ph.D. in History from UCLA (2008).  Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Kentucky I served as an adjunct professor of History at UCLA and Glendale Community College and I spent one year as a Chancellor Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.