Black Disability Politics

“Black disabled genius is crucial to the work of creating a free present and future. In Black Disability Politics, Sami Schalk does so much absolutely brilliant Black queer disabled femme labor of surfacing buried Black disabled activist histories and organizing lessons. Her book is a Black queer disabled love offering, and reading it made me shout for joy and learn so much. I’m so grateful this book is in the world. Read it and give thanks that we get to share the world with the brilliance of Schalk and the organizers she writes about—then get to work putting into practice the lessons you’ve learned, so we can win.” - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, author of Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice

“Black Disability Politics bravely and humanely confronts shortcomings in social movements beyond the dualism of romanticizing them or throwing them away from a presentist perspective. Challenging myriad assumptions about disability activism and Black social movements, this book is an essential and overdue bridge between how we think about Blackness and how we think about disability.” - Kimberly Springer, author of Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968–1980

"With Sami Schalk’s incredible book, Black Disability Politics, we begin to move into a different kind of book doing intrinsically connected work—a rigorously researched look at all the ways that disabled people’s concerns have been foundational to Black resistance organizing. . . . If knowing your history is a key ingredient to success, Black Disability Politics presents a deeply researched and still incredibly readable map of the past, with implications for the shimmering future. This, along with what I can only describe as a muscular clarity in her writing, was incredible as a beginner to the topic to feel my understanding grow as I read, and that is only possible in the capable hands of a great writer like Schalk." - S. Bear Bergman, Xtra!

"Sami Schalk explores the histories and essential lessons of Black disabled labor, politics and movements. This is a long-overdue and essential volume." - Karla Strand, Ms.

"Black Disability Politics is a profound exploration and documentation of a cultural topic that has gone overlooked throughout the entire history of the Black American experience. . . .  A deeply important view of the fight for the rights of disabled Black people in America since the 1970s." - Jordannah Elizabeth, New York Amsterdam News

"This book will be of particular interest to undergraduate and graduate students because it invites continued exploration of Black disability studies and politics. Recommended. Undergraduates through faculty."
  - S. Burch, Choice

"By using evidence that both stretches across the historical period and is also derived from present praxis, Schalk creates a new and innovative methodological framework for the scholarship of disability and identity. There is much to learn about black disability politics through the accounts of the work of the Panthers and other groups, key publications and the activist interactions described in this book." - Catharine Coleborne, Society for US Intellectual History

"Fundamentally, Black Disability Politics is a critical intervention in a field that remains tethered to white ways of knowing and being. Disability activists, abolitionist organizers and educators, and other community-based culture workers will find this text useful as they engage with diverse Black communities seeking to name themselves and reclaim their political lives and livelihoods." - Jenn M. Jackson, Society & Space

"Sami Schalk’s Black Disability Politics is a rare gem in academia, a book that is innovative, intellectually significant, and highly accessible. . . . This innovative and compelling book is essential for scholars and activists in areas of justice and liberation politics." - Allison C. Carey, Mobilization

"Multidisciplinary in content, form, and methodology, Schalk’s work highlights the labor that mainstream disability movements typically obscure, articulating key lessons to guide developing political theory and practice." - Shannon Potter, Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies

"In addition to opening possibilities for new scholarship, Black Disability Politics offers multiple opportunities to change our understanding of the past, present, and future of disability justice—and to be changed ourselves in the process." - Kendall Dinniene, The Black Scholar

"Schalk scribes this excellent historical, contextual, and future-oriented book for black disabled readers . . . [Black Disability Politics] will, if it has not already, serve as an excellent foundation for the further development of Black disability studies and politics." - Miriam Spies, Canadian Journal of Disability Studies