Author POLICE AGAINST THE MOVEMENT (2025) on civil rights activists vs. state violence, surveillance | Historian @ubaltmain | Bylines @thenation @jacobin @slate

Joined April 2014
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Wrote a preview of my book. 60 years ago today, the March on Washington captured America's attention--including the attention of police spies from NYC, Chicago, Birmingham Philly. Histories of the March should mention this surveillance. slate.com/news-and-politics/…
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Joshua Clark Davis retweeted
My book is out by Sep. Robin DG Kelley says — "TROOP MOVEMENTS will profoundly change how we think about the 1940s." This week — PennPress dot org has 40%-off sale! [ Use code PENN-SUMMER26 ] If you may want to do an event, or a review — be in touch! pennpress.org/9781512829907/…
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Joshua Clark Davis retweeted
That the Guggenheim folks saw me worthy of a fellowship is, I hope, a testament to the idea that people in prison can create successful careers and we don't have to wait for someone to set us free before we make our mark. #guggfellows2026 gf.org/stories/announcing-th…
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Joshua Clark Davis retweeted
Less than a week until the publication of Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect and Serve Themselves! You can still preorder it from @BasicBooks with discount code BLUE20 at basicbooks.com/titles/stuart….
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Joshua Clark Davis retweeted
'In this excerpt from Joshua Clark Davis's new book Police Against The Movement, the author explains how "local law enforcement and their allies perpetrated a far-reaching erasure of history".' Police Departments Tracked Activists in the 1960s and 70s — Then Erased Records teenvogue.com/story/police-d… | @TeenVogue
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Joshua Clark Davis retweeted
People usually associate law enforcement repression of black activism w/ the naked brutality of Birmingham or the Panthers vs the FBI. That's not the whole story. I reviewed a new book about local police surveillance of the civil rights movement for @newrepublic 's new issue:
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Joshua Clark Davis retweeted
If you'd like to read more about this very point—how police veto elected officials' decisions—I've written a whole book on the topic, called Blue Power! It's now available for preorder from @BasicBooks, 20% discount with the code BLUE20. hachettebookgroup.com/titles…
“I find it ridiculous and inimical to democracy that police have veto power over elected officials’ decisions, and that politicians therefore need to walk on eggshells so as not to offend them.” Read our interview with @stschrader1 in Issue Sixteen. thedriftmag.com/our-diminish…
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My new Intercept piece on the NYPD’s targeting of MLK is up today, with never-before-published police surveillance photos of King.
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I'll be in Brooklyn to discuss POLICE AGAINST THE MOVEMENT with Chenjerai Kumanyika this Thursday, 11/06 at The Word is Change!
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Joshua Clark Davis retweeted
Politics & Prose Bookstore (5015 Connecticut Avenue, NW) Saturday, October 18 at 3:00 – 4:00 pm First come, first seated @joshuaclarkdavis @politicsprose
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Have a piece today in TEEN VOGUE from my new book POLICE AGAINST THE MOVEMENT about how the NYPD, LAPD, cops in Chicago and Memphis surveilled the civil rights movement—and then destroyed millions of surveillance files in the ‘70s, including ones likely on MLK’s assassination.
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Joshua Clark Davis retweeted
Today, I spoke w @JoshClarkDavis about his new book, Police Against the Movement. In it, Joshua recounts how local police departments infiltrated, surveilled, and sabotaged civil rights orgs, how those orgs fought back, and what it means for modern police reform movements
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My book, POLICE AGAINST THE MOVEMENT, comes out 10/7 and I'm going on a book tour! 10/07, SF: City Lights 10/09, LA: Skylight 10/16, Baltimore: Red Emma's 10/18, DC: Politics & Prose 11/06, NYC: The Word Is Change 12/02, Baltimore: Enoch Pratt 12/04, Atlanta: A Cappella
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Joshua Clark Davis retweeted
I had the pleasure of meeting @realmattnadel a couple months ago. In this moving op-doc for the @nytimes, he discusses making videos for prisoners in New York who are seeking clemency from @GovKathyHochul, who has not kept her promise to overhaul clemency. nytimes.com/2025/08/12/opini…
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Joshua Clark Davis retweeted
Today’s beach read: Police Against the Movement, by @JoshClarkDavis. It is SO good! Out in October.
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Joshua Clark Davis retweeted
🎙️ 5 Years Since George Floyd Looking back at five years of community and abolitionist organizing since the police killing of George Floyd Featuring @avitale, Chauntyll Allen (BLM- Twin Cities) and @DocMellyMel (@blmgrassroots x @BLMLA) open.spotify.com/episode/6dY…
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