In Conversation with Dr. Stefan M. Bradley (Amherst College), author of "If We Don't Get It: A People's History of Ferguson" (The New Press Press, 2025)

     Dr. Stefan M. Bradley is Charles Hamilton Houston '15 Professor of Black Studies and History, and is the Department Chair of Black Studies at Amherst College.

     In his new book, If We Don't Get It: A People's History of Ferguson (The New Press, 2025), Dr. Bradley writes about the 2014 police murder of the Black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the resulting protest movement. Through oral interviews and media analysis, Bradley reveals "a rich story with deep relevance for the protests of our own time," and the book "offers a gripping account of how young activists, without previous political experience, succeeded in changing our national political narrative."

     UCLA Professor Robin D.G. Kelley praised Dr. Bradley's new book: "An honest, incisive, personal account of those fateful weeks following Michael Brown’s death. Refusing to evade difficult questions and criticism, Stefan Bradley crafts a compelling portrait of a movement the media missed: a multigenerational, multiclass, politically sophisticated community in action, not just in the streets but against a rapacious and racist system. A powerful reminder of why all roads from our current struggles for Black freedom and abolition lead back to Ferguson."

     Find Dr. Bradley's website here., and his faculty page at Amherst is here. The book, If We Don't Get It: A People's History of Ferguson, is available from The New Press here. Series organizers (alphabetical) are Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU Dominguez Hills, Psychology), Stan Futch (President, Westside Action Group), Michael German (Brennan Center for Justice), Robie Madrigal (Pfau Library), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link).