Traci Parker 
Associate Professor of Afro-American Studies | University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA, UNITED STATES
Traci Parker’s interests include African American women’s history, race and racism, class, labor, capitalism, and consumer culture.
Expertise (4)
Race, Class and Consumer Culture
African American History and Culture
African American History
Race and Racism
Biography
Traci Parker's broad expertise in African-American women's history, race and racism, and the history of consumer culture makes her a perennially sought-after expert in print, television and online media.
Her award-winning book, "Department Stores and the Black Freedom Movement" examines the movement to racially integrate white-collar work and consumption in American department stores from the 1930s to 1980s.
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Education (3)
The University of Chicago: Ph.D., History
The University of Chicago: M.A., Social Sciences/History
Cornell University: B.A., History
Links (1)
Media Coverage (4)
The History Of Black Love And How It Impacts Families And Relationships Today
WGBH tv
2021-02-12
Dt. Traci Parker joins a panel on GBH's "Basic Black" to celebrate and discuss Black love, relationships, and rituals in honor of Valentine's Day.
Washington Journal: Washington Journal Traci Parker on the 1960 Lunch Counter Sit-Ins
C-SPAN tv
2020-06-28
n 1960, four African American students sat down at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, launching a civil rights movement that would spread to other cities. Professor Traci Parker joined American History TV to take viewer questions about protests against desegregation during that time.
Racial Injustice Outlived The American Department Store
Forbes online
2020-06-06
"The ideal concept of the department store that carried “everything for everybody” was far from the truth for African Americans. “Department stores celebrated democracy, but they were, in fact, Jim Crow institutions designed to satisfy the needs and desires of middle-class whites, albeit with an ambiguous color line,” says Traci Parker, Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and author of the book, Department Stores and the Black Freedom Movement. "
What Can You Do With a History Degree?
U.S. News & World Report print
2019-04-29
In an article about career for history majors, Traci Parker says, ""People forget that you can meld your interests together. One way someone can pursue an academic interest in history while learning about another academic subject is by studying business history."
Publications (2)
Department Stores and the Black Freedom Movement: Workers, Consumers, and Civil Rights from the 1930s to the 1980s (Book)
University of North Carolina PressTraci Parker
2021-04-29
In this book, Traci Parker examines the movement to racially integrate white-collar work and consumption in American department stores, and broadens our understanding of historical transformations in African American class and labor formation.
Sears' Complicated History with Black Customers
The Baltimore SunTraci Parker
2019-05-10
"As its iconic slogan states, Sears was “Where America shops.” It made African American customers, like my family, a priority long before many of its competitors — an action that led many contemporaries and scholars to celebrate Sears as a civil rights pioneer. But Sears’ treatment of African Americans was complicated. More than that, it was contradictory: On the one hand, Sears valued black workers and consumers; on the other hand, however, it often treated them as second-class citizens and was a target of civil rights protests as a result."
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