Charles Leavitt

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize
1 settembre 2025–26 giugno 2026
Professione
Associate Professor of Italian and Film, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Notre Dame
Titolo del progetto
The War Between Black and White: Racial Conflict in American-Occupied Italy
Descrizione del progetto

The War Between Black and White investigates a series of violent clashes between the US Armed Forces and the African American inhabitants of Tombolo, a pine forest between Pisa and Livorno, which occurred between 1945 and 1948. The book will identify Tombolo, for the first time, as the site of an African American freedom struggle brutally repressed, demonstrating how postwar Italy played a pivotal if unexamined role in US civil rights history. Although this history has been largely forgotten, I argue that the tragic events of Tombolo continue to haunt contemporary society. Restoring a necessary cultural memory, the book will empower readers to confront and to comprehend this important moment in Italian and American history.