The Schomburg Center Announces Winners for the Lapidus Center’s 2023 Harriet Tubman Prize
Media contact: Leah Drayton, leahdrayton@nypl.org
January 11th, 2024—The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is pleased to announce that both Dr. Kerri Greenidge, Ph.D. AND Jori Lewis, Ph.D. are the winners of the 2023 Harriet Tubman Prize for their books The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family, Happy Dreams of Liberty: An American Family in Slavery and Freedom and Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History respectively.
The Harriet Tubman Prize awards $7,500 to the best nonfiction book published in the United States on the slave trade, slavery, and anti-slavery in the Atlantic World. Both authors will receive the full prize amount.
A jury composed of distinguished historians and writers, Drs. Daniel A. Livesay, Tiya A. Miles, and Jessica Marie Johnson selected the winner from four finalists chosen by a national committee of librarians and scholars. In addition to Greenidge and Lewis, the other finalists were Jesse Olsavsky, Ph.D. (The Most Absolute Abolition: Runaways, Vigilance Committees, and the Rise of Revolutionary Abolitionism, 1835–1861) and R. Isabela Morales, Ph.D. (Happy Dreams of Liberty: An American Family in Slavery and Freedom).
"In an age when Black study is under attack, the history of African American people and communities reminds us that we are more complex, and our political impact more significant, than even the most radical of us have dared to imagine. The Schomburg's preservation of Black life allows those of us who immerse ourselves in the history of African-descended people to appreciate and study this nuance and complexity at a time when our stories are more necessary than ever before. It is humbling to know that The Grimkes has found appreciation from an institution that provided so much support for my scholarship,” said Dr. Kerri Greenidge, author of The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family, Happy Dreams of Liberty: An American Family in Slavery and Freedom.
It is such a breathtaking honor to receive the Lapidus Center's Harriet Tubman Prize for Slaves for Peanuts. I am deeply humbled that my book will now forever be associated with Tubman’s legacy as a freedom fighter. I thank the judges for this recognition,” said Dr. Jori Lewis, author of Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History.
Dr. Kelly Greenidge is the Mellon Assistant Professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora at Tufts University, director of American Studies and co-director of the African American Trail Project at Tufts' Center for the Study of Race and Democracy.
Dr. Jori Lewis is an award-winning journalist who writes about agriculture and the environment. Lewis is the senior editor of Adi Magazine, a literary magazine covering global politics.
The 2023 Harriet Tubman Prize will be presented to both Drs. Greenidge and Lewis in the Spring of 2023.
About the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery
The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery, founded in 2014 with a generous $2.5 million gift from Ruth and Sid Lapidus, generates and disseminates scholarly knowledge and works on the slave trade, slavery, and anti-slavery pertaining to the Atlantic World. The Center supports the work of researchers with long-term and short-term fellowships. Given the centrality of Atlantic slavery to the making of the modern world, Lapidus fellowships ensure that slavery studies are a cornerstone of the Schomburg Center’s broader research community. The Center engages the public with a variety of programs, an annual nonfiction book prize, exhibitions, conferences, and partnerships with local, national, and international institutions. To learn more about the Lapidus Center, please visit lapiduscenter.org.
About the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Founded in 1925 and named a National Historic Landmark in 2017, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the preservation, research, interpretation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diasporan, and African experiences. As a research division of The New York Public Library, the Schomburg Center features diverse programming and collections totaling over 11 million items that illuminate the richness of global black history, arts, and culture. Learn more at schomburgcenter.org.
About the New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With 92 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming, and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars, and has seen record numbers of attendance and circulation in recent years. The New York Public Library serves nearly 18 million patrons who come through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.