TELL HER STORY

The life and 1984 murder of a beloved Black grandmother that changed community activism forever—and sparked the ongoing movement against racist policing and brutality.

2026 Letitia Woods Brown Book Prize, Association of Black Women Historians

#SayHerName: The story of Eleanor Bumpurs, told for the first time by decorated historian and Bumpurs’s former neighbor LaShawn Harris

“An excellent study of the 1980s that captures the heart and soul of the social movements that foreshadowed calls to ‘Say her name.’ A timely and necessary book.”

–Marcia Chatelain, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning,
Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America

TELL HER STORY

Book cover titled 'Sex Workers, Psychics, and Numbers Runners: Black Women in New York City's Underground Economy' by LaShawn Harris, featuring a black and white photo of a woman talking to an elderly man at a table, with candles and brochures in the background.

How the underground economy helped African American women rise above.

Sex Workers Physics and number runners

A woman with glasses and dreadlocks wearing a floral blouse sitting at a table with copies of her book 'Tell Her Her Story' at a book event in a bookstore.

MEET THE AUTHOR

LaShawn Harris is a Professor of History at Michigan State University and former Assistant Editor of the Journal of African American History (JAAH). Her area of expertise includes twentieth century African American and Black Women’s histories.