Discussion: "The Kyle Rittenhouse Case Had Little to Do with Self-Defense"
An Unresolved History Of Racial Violence, Whiteness, and American Retrenchment To Civil Rights During The Long Black Freedom Struggle in The Urban North
On August 25, 2020, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, from Antioch, Illinois, fatally shot two men -- Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber -- and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during an organized protest to bring awareness to the shooting of Jacob Blake. Blake, an unarmed Black man, was shot at seven times by a white police officer on August 23 of that year and was paralyzed from the waist down.
Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree recklessly endangering safety (two counts), possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, and failure to comply with an emergency order from state or local government. Rittenhouse relied on an argument of self-defense and was found not guilty on all charges.
Join Associate Professor of History Clem Harris, Ph.D., to discuss the Kyle Rittenhouse case and how it fits into greater issues of race, violence, and civil rights.
Sponsored by the Utica University Center for Africana Studies and the Center for Historical Research.