On the latest episode of Repeating History, Robert’s guest is Dr. Kate Masur, Professor of History at Northwestern University in Chicago. The main topic of discussion is the concept of citizenship in Antebellum America, especially as it pertained to the experiences of free and enslaved Blacks. It is a complex and fascinating conversation about the influence of race on legislation and constitutional jurisprudence leading towards the watershed Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment (1868), that undid parts of the notorious Dred Scott decision (1857) and enshrined the concept of “birthright citizenship” into the U.S. Constitution. This landmark and well-established development in American constitutionalism has, surprisingly, come under fire by the Trump Administration in recent weeks.

      Dr. Masur specializes in the history of race, politics, and law in the United States. Her recent book, Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction (W. W. Norton, 2021), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History and winner of the Littleton-Griswold Prize from the American Historical Association, the John Phillip Reid Book Award from the American Society for Legal History, and the John Nau Book Prize in American Civil War Era History. Her latest book, Freedom Was In Sight, was published in 2024.