Legacy Lecture: Rudolph Fisher and the Harlem Renaissance

Woodlawn Cemetery and CONservancy's Annual Legacy Lecture

Rudolph Fisher and the Harlem Renaissance by Kevin MCgruder

moderated by Eric K. Washington

Join us for a moderated discussion with Kevin McGruder and Eric K. Washington on Rudolph Fisher and his impact on the Harlem Renaissance. Fisher was both a medical doctor and author whose work examined the issues of the day including lynchings, interracial relationships, color prejudice and tensions between Black migrants from the American South and the Caribbean.

Kevin McGruder is Associate Professor of History at Antioch College. His interest in community formation led to a career in community development focusing on affordable housing in Cleveland, Newark, N.J. and Harlem as program officer with Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and Director of Real Estate Development at the Abyssinian Development Corporation. From 1997 to 2001 he was Executive Director of Gay Men of African Descent.  Additionally, from 1990 to 1991 he owned and operated Home to Harlem, and from 2000 to 2008 was co-owner of Harlemade Styleshop, both Harlem-themed gift shops.

Now as an academic, his research interests include African American institutions, urban history focusing on race and real estate, particularly racial residential patterns, and LGBTQ history. He has a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University, an M.B.A. in Real Estate Finance from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the City University of New York.  He is author of Race and Real Estate: Conflict and Cooperation in Harlem, 1890-1920 (2015) and Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem (2021), and editor of Home at Last: The Collected Writings of AIDS Journalist LeRoy Whitfield (2022). He is currently researching and writing a biography of Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher.  

Eric K. Washington is the author of Boss of the Grips - The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal and the Project Historian for Where Harlem Rests at the Woodlawn Cemetery.