Lyman Tower Sargent discussed the many ways that African Americans contributed to visions of a better life in the U.S. in literature, by establishing communities and by contributing to the dialogue around betterment throughout U.S. history. While there have been studies of individual African American writers and authors of science fiction, there has been no attempt to examine the many ways that African Americans contributed to American utopianism. This resulted in a substantial gap in the history of American political thought.

-  Lyman Tower Sargent is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is also an author and scholar in the area of utopian studies.

For transcript and more information, visit https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-8769