Dr. Charles L. Hughes is Associate Professor of History and Urban Studies. Dr. Hughes earned his Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in African American Studies. From 2015 to 2024, he was Director of the Lynne & Henry Turley Memphis Center at 九色. His research focuses on popular culture in the United States, most specifically African American music and its relationship to larger historical changes. His courses include Black Music and American History; Disability Histories; The History of Memphis; Beale Street: Past, Present and Future; and The Music of the American South. His acclaimed first book, Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South, was named one of the Best Music Books of 2015 by Rolling Stone and No Depression, and in 2021 he published Why Bushwick Bill Matters, a critical biography of the disabled hip-hop star. He is co-editor of the at the University of Texas Press, and he also serves on the faculty editorial board for the journal Southern Cultures, where he guest-edited . He has published numerous essays and given numerous talks for a range of audiences and was a regular contributor to two seasons of the podcast produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚 Learning for Justice project. In 2023, he wrote the liner notes for the 10th-anniversary reissue of . He is currently working on a book about the history of African Americans and professional wrestling in the United States, as well as articles on disability in popular music. He is the co-founder of the digital music newsletter , and he is a voter for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Selected Publications
- , University of North Carolina Press, 2015
- 鈥, University of Texas Press, 2021
- 鈥 Oxford American, 2022
- 鈥,鈥 Slate, 2022
- 鈥淔reedom Songs: Building a Civil Rights Playlist,鈥 in Jeffries, Hasan, ed., Teaching the Civil Rights Movement (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press), 2019
- "I鈥檓 The Other One: O.B. McClinton and the Racial Politics of Country Music in the 1970s and 1980s," in Jackson, Mark, ed., The Honky Tonk on the Left: Progressive Country Music (Amherst, MA: University of Massaschusetts Press), 2018
- 鈥溾榊ou Pay One Hell of a Price Being Black鈥: Rufus Thomas and the Racial Politics of Memphis Music,鈥 in Goudsouzian, Aram/McKinney, Charles, eds., An Unseen Light: Black Struggles for Freedom in Memphis, Tennessee (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky), 2018
- 鈥淐ountry Music and the Recording Industry," in Stimeling, Travis, ed., Oxford Handbook of Country Music (New York: Oxford University Press), 2017
- 鈥,鈥 New Black Man, 2017
- 鈥 鈥楪et In Formation鈥: Recent Scholarship on Popular Music and American Identities,鈥 American Quarterly, September 2016
- New Black Man, 2015
- Post Everything/Washington Post.com, 2015
- New Black Man, 2015
- 鈥淧ercy Sledge and the Southern Soul Revolution,鈥 The Rock Hall Blog, 2015
- 鈥淵ou鈥檙e My Soul Song: How Southern Soul Changed Country Music,鈥 in Pecknold, ed., Hidden In The Mix: The African-American Experience In Country Music, Duke University Press, 2013
- 鈥淎llowed To Be Free: Bob Dylan And The Black Freedom Movement,鈥 in Sheehy, and Swiss, editors, Highway 61 Revisited: Bob Dylan鈥檚 Road From Minnesota To The World, University of Minnesota Press, 2009
- 鈥淭he Boogie Woogie Rumble: An Obituary For Bo Diddley,鈥 Popular Music & Society, Northern Illinois University Press, Vol. 32, Issue 1, February 2009