In March 2024, the University of Illinois Press proudly reported the launch of the Darlene Clark Hine Endowment Fund thanks to the generosity of more than 20 individual donors. The fund honors Darlene Clark Hine, a founding editor of University of Illinois Press’s prestigious New Black Studies Series and recipient of a National Humanities Medal for her groundbreaking scholarship in African American women’s history.

Today, we are pleased to announce the first two books selected to receive support from the Darlene Clark Hine Endowment Fund. An author grant has been awarded to Cassandra Shepard’s Settler Colonialism is the Disaster, and a production subvention has been awarded to Samuel Ng’s Assemblies of Sorrow.

Settler Colonialism is the Disaster is a powerful examination of New Orleans, structural inequity, and crisis response after Hurricane Katrina and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Assemblies of Sorrow explores an overlooked facet of Black organizing and protest and traces how activists shaped fear and grief into political action.

These works reflect the endowment’s purpose: to elevate essential scholarship in Black studies and ensure that transformative research reaches readers, classrooms, and communities. The awards, the first of many to come, continue the legacy of Dr. Hine’s commitment to mentorship and scholarship by supporting Black studies publications that build a greater understanding of the African American experience and ensuring that these books can be priced accessibly for scholars and students.

The University of Illinois Press is deeply committed to our authors and publications in Black studies and seeks to grow the Darlene Clark Hine Fund and its impact on scholars and readers. Your gift—of any amount—directly sustains authors, advances critical histories, and carries forward Dr. Hine’s extraordinary legacy.

Thank you for your support of these ambitious and essential books, and congratulations to Cassandra Shephard and Samuel Ng!