About

Megan Ming Francis is a professor involved in research and teaching related to civil rights and the making of the modern American state. She examines the history and future of philanthropy’s relationship with radical social movements, as evidenced by her work on the Philanthropy and Social Movements Podcast series, where she and her students explore topics such as radical redistribution, Black maternal mortality, and indigenous resistance. Her academic focus includes the intersection of philanthropy, social justice, and civil rights, contributing to a deeper understanding of how social movements and philanthropic efforts influence American history and policy.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Criminology
• Political economy
• Law
• Gender studies
• Social psychology
• Aesthetics
• History
• Art

Selected publications

• Can Black Lives Matter within U.S. Democracy?

  The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science · 2022 · 9 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  This article examines the impact of anti-Black state violence on U.S. democracy, tracing the history of that violence and how it has changed from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. I underscore the persistence of state violence against Black Americans, how it undercuts democratization, and how those dynamics provide a useful context for ongoing discussions about the imperfect development of democracy in the United States. I also explore the Black Lives Matter Movement’s (BLMM) emphasis on dismantling the criminal punishment system and the movement’s amplification of the voices of citizens who have often been excluded from the formal political process. I argue that by centering the issue of anti-Black violence, the BLMM is offering a transformative pathway to a more fully functional democracy.

  PublisherDOI

• PD23-02 COMPARISON OF COLLAGENASE CLOSTRIDIUM HISTOLYTICUM TO SURGERY FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF PEYRONIE’S DISEASE: A RANDOMIZED TRIAL

  The Journal of Urology · 2022-04-07

  article

  You have accessJournal of UrologyCME1 May 2022PD23-02 COMPARISON OF COLLAGENASE CLOSTRIDIUM HISTOLYTICUM TO SURGERY FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF PEYRONIE’S DISEASE: A RANDOMIZED TRIAL Benjamin Green, Megan Francis, Joshua Savage, Klinton Brearton, Alissa Tyler, and Landon Trost Benjamin GreenBenjamin Green More articles by this author , Megan FrancisMegan Francis More articles by this author , Joshua SavageJoshua Savage More articles by this author , Klinton BreartonKlinton Brearton More articles by this author , Alissa TylerAlissa Tyler More articles by this author , and Landon TrostLandon Trost More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1097/JU.0000000000002565.02AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookLinked InTwitterEmail Abstract INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Since FDA approval of Collagenase Clostridium Histolyticum (CCH) for the treatment of Peyronie’s Disease (PD), there has been significant debate as to its comparable efficacy to surgical therapies. The current study objective was to compare various objective and subjective outcome measures between men undergoing CCH or surgery for PD. METHODS: A randomized, controlled trial (NCT04786106) is ongoing. Participants are randomized 1:1 to receive either CCH + traction (RestoreX) + sildenafil or penile surgery (plication and/or incision and grafting) + traction + sildenafil for PD. Objective, standardized (International Index of Erectile Function [IIEF] and Peyronie’s Disease Questionnaire [PDQ]), and non-standardized assessments are obtained at baseline, and post-treatment at 3, 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60 months. The primary outcome is overall satisfaction. Secondary outcomes include standardized and non-standardized self-assessments, penile curvature, penile length, subsequent interventions, and adverse events. RESULTS: A total of 40/40 men have been randomized, with 3-month data available on 17 (CCH=8, surgery=9). Mean age was 54.9 years, PD duration 37.4 months, curvature 72.3 degrees, and penile length 12.7 cm. All baseline variables were similar between cohorts. For the primary outcome at 3 months post-treatment, CCH men reported higher overall satisfaction (100% vs 82% surgery, p=0.12). For secondary outcomes, the median differences between CCH and surgery were: IIEF-EFD (+3.5 vs +7, p=0.52), PDQ-physical (-9.5 vs -6, p=0.56, note: lower is better for PDQ scales), PDQ-pain (-5 vs 0, p=0.22), PDQ-bother (-4 vs -8, p=0.56), length change (+1.0 vs -0.5 cm, p <0.01), and curvature degree change (-21 [41%] vs -65 [85%], p <0.01). More CCH men reported improved sexual function (88% vs 70%, p=0.59), erectile function (75% vs 45%, p=0.16), penile length (63% vs 9%, p <0.01), and less impact on sensation (25% less sensation vs 55%, p=0.13), while surgery men were more likely to report satisfaction with curvature (73% vs 50%, p=0.31). 100% of men in both groups would recommend treatment to a friend. When asked which treatment they would pick if starting over, 100% of CCH men reported CCH and/or traction, while 80% of surgery men indicated surgery (p <0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary 3-month data suggests that when compared to surgery, CCH results in higher overall satisfaction (not statistically significant), decreased curve improvement, improved penile length, and fewer impacts on erectile function and sensation. Source of Funding: Endo Pharmaceutical © 2022 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 207Issue Supplement 5May 2022Page: e409 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2022 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.MetricsAuthor Information Benjamin Green More articles by this author Megan Francis More articles by this author Joshua Savage More articles by this author Klinton Brearton More articles by this author Alissa Tyler More articles by this author Landon Trost More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement PDF downloadLoading ...

  PublisherDOI

• Movement Capture or Movement Strategy? A Critical Race History Exchange on the Beginnings of Brown v. Board

  eYLS (Yale Law School) · 2021-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  In 2019, Megan Ming Francis published a path-breaking article challenging the conventional wisdom in the field on a core piece of civil rights history: the role of a philanthropic foundation called the American Fund for Public Service, also known as the Garland Fund, in working alongside the NAACP to produce the organization’s famous litigation campaign leading to Brown v. Board of Education. Starting in the late 1920s and early 1930s, education came to occupy a central place in the NAACP’s agenda, and education desegregation became the focus of its efforts to break the back of Jim Crow. In Francis’s provocative account, the predominantly white Garland Fund captured the agenda of the civil rights organization through its financial influence, shifting the organization’s central focus from racial violence toward education equality. An organization that had been focused on protecting Black lives from white violence reoriented its attention to a new campaign, which siphoned off resources from other projects, such as workers’ economic rights and Black labor concerns.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Black Lives Matter in Historical Perspective

  Annual Review of Law and Social Science · 2021 · 113 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  This review examines the Black Lives Matter movement. Despite a growing body of literature focused on explaining the formation and activities of the present Black Lives Matter movement, less attention is given to the historical antecedents. What are earlier Black-led movements centered on ending state-sanctioned violence? This article situates Black Lives Matter in a much longer lens and examines the long struggle to protect Black lives from state-sanctioned violence. We draw from existing research to provide a historical genealogy of the movement that traces the beginnings of a movement to protect Black lives to the work of Ida B. Wells and follows it up to the work of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the urban rebellions that have followed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Origins of Mass Incarceration: The Racial Politics of Crime and Punishment in the Post–Civil Rights Era

  Annual Review of Law and Social Science · 2020 · 76 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  This article examines the origins of US mass incarceration. Although it is clear that changes in policy and practice are the proximate drivers of the prison boom, researchers continue to explore—and disagree about—why crime control policy and practice changed in ways that fueled the growth of incarceration in all 50 states. One well-known account emphasizes the centrality of racial and electoral politics. This article more fully explicates the racial politics perspective, describes several friendly amendments to it, and explores a range of arguments that challenge it in more fundamental ways. In the end, we maintain that although mass incarceration has many drivers, it cannot be explained without reference to the centrality of racial politics; the importance of the crime issue to the GOP electoral strategy that emerged in the wake of the civil rights movement; and the nature of the decentralized, two-party electoral system in the United States.

  PublisherDOI

• Movement Capture or Movement Strategy? A Critical Race History Exchange on the Beginnings of Brown v. Board

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2020-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Chapter 6. Black Lives Matter from Wilson to Trump: Social Movements in APD

  University of Pennsylvania Press eBooks · 2020-07-10

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Strange Fruit of American Political Development

  2020-12-12 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  What is the relationship between black social movements, state violence, and political development in the United States? Today, this question is especially important given the staggering number of unarmed black women and men who have been killed by the police. In this article, I explore the degree to which American Political Development (APD) scholarship has underestimated the role of social movements to shift political and constitutional development. I then argue that studying APD through the lens of Black Lives Matter highlights the need for a sustained engagement with state violence and social movements in analyses of political and constitutional development.

  PublisherDOI

• The Price of Civil Rights: Black Lives, White Funding, and Movement Capture

  Law & Society Review · 2019-01-29 · 97 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  What influence do funders have on the development of civil rights legal mobilization? Fundraising is critical to the creation, operation, and survival of rights organizations. Yet, despite the importance of funding, there is little systematic attention in the law and social movements and cause lawyering literatures on the relationship between funders and grantees. This article recovers a forgotten history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) campaign to protect black lives from lynchings and mob violence in the early twentieth century. I argue that funders engaged in a process of movement capture whereby they used their financial leverage to redirect the NAACP's agenda away from the issue of racial violence to a focus on education at a critical juncture in the civil rights movement. The findings in this article suggest that activists tread carefully as the interaction between funders and social movement organizations often creates gaps between what activists want and what funders think movements should do.

  PublisherDOI

• The Predatory Legacy of Convict Leasing

  2019-04-12

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The video is part of the recording of a live event, a symposium on capitalism and the convict leasing system in the American South, hosted by Rice University and organized by Dr. Caleb McDaniel. The lectures and panel discussion were given by activists and scholars who document and write on the continuing history and political and economic effects of the convict leasing system in America.

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Leah Wright-Rigueur

  Johns Hopkins University

  3 shared

• John Fabian Witt

  2 shared

• Landon Trost

  Brigham Young University

  1 shared

• Klinton Brearton

  1 shared

• Alvin Tillery

  1 shared

• Michael Dawson

  1 shared

• Joshua Savage

  Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit

  1 shared

• Christina M. Greer

  Fordham University

  1 shared

Education

• Ph.D., American Studies

  University of California, Berkeley

  2015

• M.A., American Studies

  University of California, Berkeley

  2011

• B.A., American Studies

  University of California, Los Angeles

  2009

Awards & honors

• Named one of 12 Grant-Supported Freedom Scholars (September…