Connor Nakamura is a senior studying History and Urban Studies. He is interested in 20th century social movements, political thought, ethnic studies, and urban history. His recent research has focused on how racialized groups understand their identities in relation to broader social movements and collective demands. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Penn History Review, and currently works as a Community Projects Assistant at the Kislak Center. In his free time, Connor enjoys trying new restaurants in Philadelphia, watching the NBA, and playing board games.
Connor Nakamura
Wolf Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellow
2024—2025 Forum on Keywords
Connor Nakamura
History
CAS, 2025
“Hardly the basis for a new movement": Democratic Socialism and Civil Rights, 1955-1965
My research examines the relationship between the democratic socialist left and the Civil Rights Movement. I focus on the activism and political thought of Bayard Rustin, a key leader on both the socialist left and the Civil Rights Movement. I aim to situate Rustin in a broader milieu of activists, from stalwarts on the white Left such as A.J. Muste and Max Shachtman, to Civil Rights leaders Ella Baker, A. Philip Randolph, and James Farmer. Through researching Rustin’s evolving relationships and politics during the 1950s and 60s, I hope to highlight a bi-directional influence between the two separate, but overlapping movements. At the center of my project, I aim to interrogate questions of political organization and individual identity.