Christopher Hayes

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Chris is an historian of urban America in the 20th century. He earned a Ph.D. in American history from Rutgers University, which is also his undergraduate alma mater.

His book on Columbia University Press, The Harlem Uprising – Segregation and Inequality in Postwar New York City, documents growing racial inequality and segregation in the fifties and sixties, and the manifold ways Black New Yorkers organized against pervasive structural racism. Problems only worsened with time, and when a white police officer shot and killed a fifteen-year-old Black boy in 1964, pent-up fury exploded into the first of the urban rebellions of the 1960s. In the aftermath, a new mayor appointed civilians to review complaints against the police, which provoked a bitter, racially divisive and successful campaign from the police union and its conservative allies to destroy the board. This history, poorly known until now, provides a clear understanding of inequities in employment, education, housing, health and criminal justice that are very much still with us today.

His teaching is primarily in labor history across time in America, with a focus on the development of the institutions and ideologies of race, class, gender, capitalism, industry and work.

Research Publications

The Harlem Uprising: Segregation and Inequality in Postwar New York City. New York: Columbia University Press, October 2021.
“Decline in an Era of Triumph: Black Workers in 1960s New York City,” Labor History 61:5-6, 486-502. Published online 12 Oct 2020. doi.org/10.1080/0023656X.2020.1830956
“How the Police Benevolent Association Became a Political Force.” Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History. Published online 10 Dec 2020. gothamcenter.org/blog/how-the-police- benevolent-association-became-a-political-force
“Review of Kidada E. Williams’ They Left Great Marks on Me: African American Testimonies of Racial Violence from Emancipation to World War I,” The Journal of Social History, 2014. DOI 10.1093/jsh/shu062

Presentations

Academic Conferences & Invited Lectures

Urban History Association Biennial Conference; Paper Title: “Remembering Economic Rights as a Core Component of Civil Rights,” Detroit, Michigan, October 2020 – accepted, conference canceled
Labor and Working-Class History Association Annual Meeting; Paper Title: “Maintaining Jim Crow Craft Unionism in the Civil Rights Era: Showdown at Hunts Point Terminal Market,” Durham, North Carolina, June 2019
Urban History Association Biennial Conference; Paper Title: “’This union won’t work with nonunion men’ - Keeping Construction White in 1960s New York City,” Columbia, South Carolina, October 2018
Labor and Working-Class History Association Annual Meeting; Paper Title: “Police Power as Political Power – the 1966 New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board Referendum,” Seattle, Washington, June 2017
Conversations in Black Freedom Studies; Panel Title: “The Long Fight against New York’s Police Brutality,” The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, New York, May 2017
livestream.com/schomburgcenter/events/7267116
New Jersey History Forum; Panel Title: “Social History,” Chair and Commentator, Morristown, New Jersey, November 2016
Urban History Association Biennial Conference; Paper Title: “Thoughts on Operation Open City and the First, Second and Third Reconstructions,” Chicago, Illinois, October 2016
American Historical Association Annual Meeting; Paper Title: “HANA and Heroin: Alternative Approaches to Drug Abuse in 1960s Harlem,” New York, New York, January 2015
Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting; Paper Title: “Internal Migration and the Rise of Black Radicalism in Postwar New York City,” Atlanta, Georgia, April 2014
The Red Mill Museum; Presentation Title: "Civil Rights in the Promised Land: Struggles for Racial Equality in New York and New Jersey," Clinton, New Jersey, February 2014
Social Science History Association Annual Meeting; Paper Title: “The Economics of Segregation in Postwar New York City,” Chicago, Illinois, November 2013
Educating Harlem: Histories of Learning and Schooling in an American Community; Paper Title: “Linking Postwar Educational and Residential Segregation in Central Harlem,” New York, New York, October 2013
Urban History Association Biennial Conference; Paper Title: “Using Place to Control Race: New York City in the Postwar Period,” New York, New York, October 2012
Social Science History Association Annual Meeting; Paper Title: “Hitting the Smiling Wall: Postwar Civil Rights in New York City,” Boston, Massachusetts, November 2011
Social Science History Association Annual Meeting; Panel Title: “Race in the Cities,” Discussant, Boston, Massachusetts, November 2011
Warren I. Susman Conference; Paper Title: “Black New Yorkers, White New Yorkers and the Civilian Review Board Struggle of the Mid-1960s,” New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 2011
Social Science History Association Annual Meeting; Panel Title: “Legacies and Predecessors of the Civil Rights Movement,” Discussant, Chicago, Illinois, November 2013

Media

Op-Eds

“Historically, Black Distrust of Police is about More than Acts of Violence” History News Network, 7 November, 2021
“Do You Believe Black New Yorkers Now?” New York Daily News, June 5, 2020
“Black and Latino Communities Will Be Hit the Hardest during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Here’s Why,” Star Ledger, March 29, 2020

Media Appearances

“Eric Adams vs. the NYPD” Slate, 24 January, 2022
“A History of Racism Explains Why So Many Poor N.J. Residents Don’t Get Welfare, Report Says.” NJ.com, August 7, 2021
“Violent Crime in US Returns to Forefront of Political Agenda.” Financial Times, June 26, 2021
“7 Hard and Crucial Lessons of Covid-19.” Elemental, March 31, 2021
“312K in NJ Could Lose Unemployment This Month without CARES ACT Deal.” NJ Biz, December 3, 2020
“These N.J. Towns Were Hit Hardest by the Pandemic. See How Yours Fared,” NJ.com, September 20, 2020
“Waking up Starving: The Human Cost of Jobless-benefit Delays”, LinkedIn News, August 12, 2020
“New Jobless Claims Nearly Double in Garden State amid COVID-19 Rebound,” NJ Biz, July 9, 2020
“'They Don't Belong': Calls Grow to Oust Police from US Labor Movement,” The Guardian, June 11, 2020
“America at War with Itself,” Capital, June 4, 2020
“Minority Communities Hit Hardest by COVID-19,” NJTV News, June 4, 2020
“America’s Inequalities Burst into the Open,” Financial Times, June 1, 2020
“New Jersey's Weekly Jobless Claims Are Declining, but That May Not Mean What It Seems to Mean,” NJ Biz, June 1, 2020
“A Stark Look at Covid-19 and Racial Disparities,” Elemental, May 14, 2020
“Coronavirus Update: Unemployment Spikes, but Markets Roar on Reopening Hopes,” Yahoo Finance, May 8, 2020
“The Month We Fell off a Cliff,” Axios, May 8, 2020
“Coronavirus NJ: Why Are 'People Surprised That this is Happening' to Minorities?” Asbury Park Press, May 6, 2020
“What Needs to Happen before Your Boss Can Make You Return to Work”, Mashable, April 23, 2020
“Ask the Experts: States with the Biggest Increases in Unemployment Due to Coronavirus,” WalletHub, April 9, 2020
“New York's 'Night of Birmingham Horror' Sparked a Summer of Riots,” National Public Radio, July 18, 2014

Highlights

Awards, Grants, and Honors

Rutgers University, Institutional Conference Travel Award, 2012

Rutgers University, Departmental Conference Travel Award, 2012

Rutgers University Center for Historical Analysis Graduate Fellow, Alternate, 2010-2011

Rutgers University, Mellon Small Summer Grant Award, 2010

Rutgers University, Doctoral Fellowship, 2005-2006, 2008-2009