Joshua Clark Davis

Joshua Clark Davis, an associate professor who studies postwar U.S. history and social movements, describes how local police actively sabotaged civil rights organizing. He explores red squads, undercover infiltration, legal and economic attacks, and the deliberate erasure of records. The conversation links these historical tactics to modern surveillance and repression of protesters.

Joshua Clark Davis, associate professor of history who studies postwar U.S. social movements, unveils how local police waged slow, political warfare against civil rights organizers. He covers surveillance, infiltration, legal and reputational attacks. Multiple short anecdotes and historical pivots show how municipal repression reshaped the struggle and echoes in contemporary protest policing.

Joshua Clark Davis, an Associate Professor of U.S. history, explores the overlooked resistance of civil rights activists to police violence in his new book. He reveals how groups like CORE and SNCC fought back against surveillance and repression, illustrating their struggles through personal stories. Davis expands the concept of police violence to include economic and legal tactics that aimed to undermine movements. He also sheds light on local police strategies, such as red squads, and the impact of infiltrators on the civil rights struggle.