This presentation analyzes a nineteenth-century image of a white man shooting black civil rights activist Octavius Catto, and discusses the complications related to researching and writing about black people in US history.
Geoff Zylstra is a historian of technology who focuses on the industrialization of the built environment in the nineteenth century. His research includes a focus on race and ethnicity. He has published in journals like Technology and Culture and the Journal of Urban History and served as the Primary Investigator of the NEH grant, Making Connections: Engaging the Humanities at a College of Technology.