Ieasha Prime - Black History, Resistance & Racism: A Modern Day Problem

About this lecture

In this lecture, scholar Ieasha Prime traces the deep and largely untold history of Islam's role in Black resistance — from the pre-Columbian West African Muslim explorers and the empire of Mansa Musa, through the Islamic foundations of the Haitian Revolution and the 1835 Brazil uprising, to the civil rights movement, hip-hop, and beyond. Drawing on history, scholarship, and personal reflection, she challenges the narrative that Black history begins with slavery, demonstrating instead a rich, continuous tradition of Islamic knowledge, courage, and resistance that shaped America and the world.