Allie R. Lopez

Advisor

Dr. Robert Elder

Education

B.A. in History, English, summa cum laude
Minor: Spanish
University of North Alabama, 2020

Research Narrative & Academic Interests

Broadly, my research focuses on the Black freedom struggle in the rural South. In this, I hope to explore how local iterations of white structural control impacted Black women and men as they sought to sustain themselves under Jim Crow.

Exam Fields: US post-1877, African American History, African Diaspora

Selected Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

“Segregationist Schemes: The Citizens’ Council, Reverse Freedom Rides, and Opposition to Welfare in Alabama, 1962–1968, Alabama Review

Public-Facing Articles

TIME, Made by History
“The Origin of the ‘Welfare Queen’ Myth”

TIME, Made by History
Co-author, “The History of Rural Black Land Loss

Patheos, Anxious Bench
“Everyday People in Everyday Places”

Encyclopedia Entries

Encyclopedia of Alabama "Reverse Freedom Rides"

Book Reviews

Nancy Koester, We Will Be Free: The Life and Faith of Sojourner Truth in Fides et Historia

Angela D. Sims, Lynched: The Power of Memory in a Culture of Terror in Sound Historian, 2022.

Melissa J. Wilde, Birth Control Battles: How Race and Class Divided American Religion in Society for US Intellectual History, 2021.

Blog Posts

“Everyday People in Everyday Places: Local Civil Rights Movements and the Long Black Freedom Struggle, Patheos, Anxious Bench, 2023.

“The Call to Comprehensive Justice,” Patheos, Anxious Bench, 2022.

Waco History App

• “Mercy Dee Walton”
• “Urban Renewal”
• “The Harley Berg Show”
• “Karem Shrine Temple”
• “Shep Mullens”
• For more, see https://wacohistory.org/items/browse/

Selected Activities

Awards

• Keller Key Recipient
• Outstanding English Graduate
• Outstanding History Graduate
• Outstanding Academic Achievement, UNA Honors College

Fellowships

• Graduate Student Fellowship, Baylor University, 2020-Present

Grants

• OAH John Higham Research Fellowship                                                                           
• AHA Coley Student Research Award
• Summersell Center for the Study of the South, Travel Grant Recipient