In this talk, Jonathan Holloway, provost and professor of history and African American studies at Nortwestern University, explores how ideas of racial belonging and citizenship are articulated through political narratives and cultural performances. 

Through a close examination of material objects from the moment of the nation’s founding to the very recent past, this talk is a meditation on how the “value” of race has been used as a vehicle to circulate ideas of Americanness and to identify who belongs and what makes a citizen.