About

Our Mission

The Center's mission is to promote engaged research, scholarship and discussion, with a focus on the ways in which issues of race and democracy impact the lives of global citizens.

The African American Trail Project

The African American Trail Project is a collaborative public history initiative housed at Tufts University's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. Originally inspired by the scholarship of Tufts Professor Gerald R. Gill (1948-2007) and driven by faculty and student research, this project maps African American and African-descended public history sites across greater Boston, and throughout Massachusetts. The African American Trail Project aims to develop African American historical memory and intergenerational community, placing present-day struggles for racial justice in the context of greater Boston's historic African American, Black Native, and diasporic communities.

Slavery, Colonialism, and their Legacies

In 2023-24, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy has partnered with the Center for Humanities at Tufts (CHAT), the Tufts Archival Research Center (TARC) and the Office of Provost, in a university-wide collaborative research initiative to examine the history of slavery, colonialism, and their legacies at Tufts University. The project will provide sustained support for interdisciplinary scholarship and public programming focused on Tufts’ historical ties to slavery and the long presence of African descended and indigenous communities in the region.