Charlton D. McIlwain - Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter

This book is a collective project, co-produced with many people that I must acknowledge and thank, despite knowing that acknowledgments and thanks are not nearly enough.

My son, Marcus, and my wife, Raechel, graciously lent me so much time that rightfully belonged to them. Marcus was honest enough to tell me that my first draft of the book was boring! And Raechels more sophisticated editorial advice pushed me to write something that was not too sophisticated to be understood by those for whom I wrote this book. I could not have written this book without the love, support, and patience you both showed.

Diana Kamin, Rachel Kuo, and Tristan Beach: I am grateful and indebted to each of you for your interest in and dedication to this project. Your research acumen and your contribution of time ran so far beyond what I paid you for your labor. This book literally would not have been possible without you. Your hard work is etched in every page. Thank you.

I must especially thank the women and men who so generously lent me their time, their words, and their voicesmost personally, a few, posthumously. Kamal Al-Mansour, Lee Bailey, Anita Brown, Derrick Brown, Charlene Caruthers, Allen Frimpong, Malcolm Cassell, Farai Chideya, Barry Cooper, E. David Ellington, Tyronne Foy, Ken Granderson, Dream Hampton, Timothy L. Jenkins, William Murrell, Ken Onwere, and Idette Vaughn, I hope I did your stories justice.

I am also indebted to my colleagues and friends whose conversations, ideas, and writings accompanied me as I wrote the book. To many of my colleagues at the Center for Critical Race and Digital StudiesAndr Brock, Safiya Noble, Sarah Jackson, Lisa Nakamura, Wendy Chun, Paula Chakravartty, Meredith Broussard, Aymar Jean Christian, Meredith Clark, Deen Freelon, Stephanie Dinkins, Margaret Hu, Jenny Korn, Lori Kiddo Lopez, Shaka McGlotten, Kelli Moore, Anika Navaroli, Alondra Nelson, Desmond Patton, Minh-Ha T. Pham, Kiran Samuel, Catherine Knight-Steele, Robin Stevens, Tonia Sutherland, Brendesha Tynes, Farida Vis, Myra Washington, Anne Washington, and Jessica Eaglin.

Thanks to many other colleagues whose conversations and work help to shape my work. These include Andrea Dixon, Robin Coleman, Aswin Punathambekar, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Rayvon Fouch, Pamela Newkirk, Phil Dalton, David Worth, Nick Couldry, Adrienne Russell, Stephanie Richter Schulte, Matt Powers, Rod Benson, Bilge Yesil, Jessie Daniels, Nabil Echchaibi, Mako Hill, Brett Gary, Arun Kundnani, Lynne Clark, David Goldberg, Finn Brunton, Todd Gitlin, Christina Dunbar-Hester, Gina Neff, Lance Bennett, Carmen Gonzalez, Katy Pearce, Phil Howard.

Special thanks to journalist Emily Parker, who worked on key interviews with and conversations about Black Lives Matter organizational leadership.

Special thanks to my 20152016 NYU Humanities Fellows colleagues who provided an engaging audience for the book as it first developed. They include Luke Stark, Narges Bajoghli, Patrick Deer, Valeria G. Castelli, Hiilei Julia Hobart, Sean Larson, Anna McCarthy, Andrew Needham, Sean Nesselrode, Lana Povitz, Myisha Priest, Gwynneth C. Malin, Jane Tylus, and Deborah Willis.

Thanks to Katy Boss, Scott Collard and April Hathcock, at NYU Libraries, who helped in many ways with my research for and production of the book. And to archivists at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center archives at Howard University who so respectfully assisted my search through what seemed like endless boxes of paper. Thanks to Kreg V. Purcell at the National Criminal Justice Reference Service for help locating crucial historical documents. And thanks to Amy Bradley and Max Campbell at IBM Corporate Archives for assistance with securing permission to use IBM images.

I also want to thank danah boyd, Alice Marwick, and other folks affiliated with the Data & Society Research Institute. Serving as an advisor has given me an opportunity to interact with many scholars whose work helped to invigorate my thinking, and the trajectory of this book.

Thanks to Ken Adams who provided comments on a draft of the manuscript.

Finally, much gratitude goes to my editor at Oxford University Press, Angela Chnapko, and publisher Niko Pfund. They believed in this book when it was just a few pages of ideas and a tiny kernel of the story that became Black Software.