This conversation is with Omari Averette-Phillips,  a Ph.D. student in History at UC Davis. An (African) Americanist, his research focuses on Black engagement with political and labor organizations in the U.S. South during Reconstruction. His research explores the intersection of race, gender, politics, and labor. His current project explores Southern Black women and their political engagement during the 1880 and 1890s with the Knights of Labor, the first public labor union in the United States. Omari is also one of the hosts of “New Books in African American Studies,” a podcast on the New Books Network.