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Sharron Wilkins Conrad

Associate Professor of History, Tarrant County College District
Chapter Member: Dallas-Fort Worth SSN
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About Sharron

Conrad's research focuses on civil rights and the American presidency. Overarching themes in Conrad’s writings include the ways that African Americans remember the civil rights leadership of Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, how these perceptions often conflict with scholarly interpretations, and what is gained by rethinking our understanding of “public” history. Conrad is a public historian who supports history and memory projects that document the African-American past in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.

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Contributions

Remember JFK Not for His Assassination, but for His Civil Rights Advocacy

  • Ellen Fitzpatrick
Commentary,

Publications

"More Upset Than Most: Measuring and Understanding African American Responses to the Kennedy Assassination" American Quarterly 75, no. 2 (June, 2023): 279-307.

Explores a 1963 poll collected after JFK's death for lessons on why African Americans mourned his death so intensely. Challenges scholarly assessments of Kennedy's civil rights accomplishments and documents the genesis and resilience of his memory for African Americans.

"'He Gave His Life for Us': The Civil Rights Martyrdom of John F. Kennedy" in Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture, edited by Lindsay M. Chervinsky and Matthew R. Costell (University of Virginia Press, 2020).

Reviews the unique ways that Black citizens mourned the death of President Kennedy.