The Lab at Hard Histories

Research Lab

Started in January 2021, the Hard Histories at Hopkins Lab undertakes research into the history of race and racism at Johns Hopkins University. Our team includes undergraduate and graduate student researchers, graduate teaching assistants, and faculty engaged in archival research into select facets of the university’s history. Our aim is to critically examine often-told stories and near-myths and to replace them with new archival discoveries and analysis. 

In the spring 2021 term, the Lab examined three broad subjects: 

• Indentured labor, manumissions, and first-person slave narratives in Baltimore and Anne Arundel County. 
• The post-Civil War rise of segregation in Baltimore City: transportation, education, and the city almshouse. 
• The life and times of the thinker Kelly Miller, the JHU/Baltimore years. 

Please stay tuned here for postings of the final research projects.