Brian J Purnell

Since 2010 I have been a faculty member at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. I teach courses on the U.S. Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, on urban history, and on general U.S. history. Before joining Bowdoin College I was an Assistant Professor of African & African American Studies at Fordham University, where I also worked as a research director of a public history project called the Bronx African American History Project.

Before moving to Brunswick, Maine, I was a life long resident of New York City. I earned a BA in History and African American Studies from Fordham University and an MA and PhD from New York University. My first book is entitled, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings: The Congress of Racial Equality in Brooklyn (University Press of Kentucky, 2013). Currently, I am researching and writing a book on community development in America's Black ghettos.