Pulitzer Prize History Winner

A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration

by Steven Hahn

Summary

Hahn charts how Black Southerners built political life and collective power from the era of slavery through Reconstruction and into the Great Migration. He recovers the kinship networks, churches, and organizations that sustained resistance even under crushing oppression. The book matters for placing rural Black communities at the center of American political history rather than the margins.

Historical Context & Significance

Steven Hahn won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for History as well as the Bancroft Prize for this work.