Kali Nicole Gross facts for kids

Kali Nicole Gross is an American historian. She is a professor who teaches about African American history at Emory University. She is also a special speaker for the Organization of American Historians. From 2019 to 2021, she was the National Publications Director for the Association of Black Women Historians.

Professor Gross is an expert on the lives of African American women in the American justice system. She studies their experiences in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Her work shows how race and gender played a big part in city life during that time, especially in Philadelphia.

Education and Career

Kali Nicole Gross went to Cornell University and earned her first degree. She then got her master's and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

After finishing her studies, she worked at Princeton University for a year. Then, she joined the history department at Drexel University. There, she became the Director of the Africana Studies Program.

In 2007, Professor Gross was a scholar at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. This center focuses on African American culture. In 2020, she became a professor at Emory University. She continues to share her knowledge as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians.

Important Research and Books

Professor Gross has written several important books. These books help us understand the past better.

Colored Amazons

In 2006, Professor Gross published her book, Colored Amazons: Crime, Violence, and Black Women in the City of Brotherly Love, 1880-1910. In this book, she looked at the lives of African American women in Philadelphia. She studied how they were treated by the justice system between 1880 and 1910. She used old records like court papers and prison information.

Professor Gross explains that some African American women broke laws to gain more control over their lives. She also shows how certain ideas about Black women and crime were created. These ideas often reinforced the power of white middle-class people in Philadelphia.

Her book explores how African American women used different ways to deal with unfair treatment. This unfairness came from racial discrimination and gender discrimination. She also looked at how harmful stereotypes were created. These stereotypes wrongly showed African American women as naturally violent or criminal. The book's title, "Colored Amazons," comes from one of these stereotypes.

Colored Amazons was praised for studying a part of history that was not well-known. It won the 2005 John Hope Franklin Center Manuscript Prize. It also received the 2006 Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Award.

Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso

In 2016, Professor Gross wrote another book called Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America. This book tells the story of a famous murder trial from 1887. It was about Hannah Mary Tabbs and her neighbor, George Wilson.

Professor Gross used old records to understand the case. She wanted to see how race and gender affected the trial and how the public saw it. The case became national news. Professor Gross suggests it gained attention partly because the victim's racial background was not clear at first.

Through this murder case, Professor Gross explored the social history of Philadelphia in the 1880s. Her work helped people understand the meaning of race and gender in American cities during that time. Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso won the 2017 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Nonfiction.

A Black Women's History of the United States

In 2020, Professor Gross worked with Daina Ramey Berry to write A Black Women's History of the United States. This book shares the history of African American women through the stories of eleven women. These women either greatly impacted American history or their lives showed important things about Black women's experiences.

The book highlights two main ideas. First, African American women have played a central role in American history, but their contributions have often been overlooked. Second, the rights that Black women have gained came mostly from their own hard work and activism.

Gross and Berry argue that the actions of African American women have helped define what liberty means in America. They also showed where democracy in the U.S. was failing and how to fix it. The authors chose stories about historical figures who are not always well-known. This book was listed as one of "the 10 books to read in February" of 2019 by The Washington Post. It was also named one of "the 22 most anticipated books of February 2020" by Bustle.

Professor Gross's work has been featured in many news outlets. These include The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, WNYC, and Time.

Selected Books

• Colored Amazons: Crime, Violence, and Black Women in the City of Brotherly Love, 1880-1910 (2006)
• Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America (2016)
• A Black Women's History of the United States, with Daina Ramey Berry (2020)