Joshua Clark Davis, associate professor of history and the author of several books covering 20th century American history with a focus on social movements, policing, urban history, and African American history, spoke on WYPR's Midday show on March 10 in a conversation about his latest book, Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back. Dr. Davis and host Tom Hall discussed the long-term battle between law enforcement and civil rights activists, which preceded movements like Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter by decades.
Released in October 2025, Police Against the Movement "shatters one of the most pernicious myths about the 1960s: that the civil rights movement endured police violence without fighting it," according to its publisher, Princeton University Press. "Instead, as Joshua Clark Davis shows, activists from the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee confronted police abuses head-on, staging sit-ins at precinct stations, picketing outside department headquarters, and blocking city streets to protest officer misdeeds. In return, organizers found themselves the targets of overwhelming political repression in the form of police surveillance, infiltration by undercover officers, and retaliatory prosecutions aimed at discrediting and derailing their movement."
Prof. Davis will next speak about his book on Wednesday, March 25, at 5:30 p.m. in UBalt's Angelos Law Center on the 12th floor, when the UBalt History Club, the Helen P. Denit Honors Program, Diversity and International Services, and the Black Law Students Association host him in a conversation with History program alumna and current law student Ashley Wilson.
Listen to the Midday interview with Prof. Joshua Clark Davis.
Learn more about about Prof. Davis.