The Cammett Lecture Series for Economic Justice & Social Change
Dr. Justene Hill Edwards researches the intersection of African American history, American economic history, and the history of American slavery. Her newest book, Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank, chronicles the rise and fall of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company. Savings and Trust exposes how the failure of the Freedman’s Bank has shaped economic inequality in America. Savings and Trust was reviewed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and it received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. Moreover, Publisher’s Weekly named Savings and Trust one of the best nonfiction books of 2024. Savings and Trust was awarded the 2025 Virginia Literary Award for Nonfiction by the Library of Virginia and the 2025 Frederick Douglass Book Prize.
Read Dr. Hill Edwards's full bio.
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