The Strange Fruit of American Political Development

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhat is the relationship between black social movements, state violence, and political development in the United States? Today, this question is especially important given the staggering number of unarmed black women and men who have been killed by the police. In this article, I explore the degree to which American Political Development (APD) scholarship has underestimated the role of social movements to shift political and constitutional development. I then argue that studying APD through the lens of Black Lives Matter highlights the need for a sustained engagement with state violence and social movements in analyses of political and constitutional development.