Preparation for the event tonight and they said that is the new faulkner biography. I said well, you got the faulkner part right. The best way i can describe this book is equal parts military history, social commentary, and literary criticism. And i think it will appeal equally to fans of any of those subjects. What the book really did for me is force me to give some serious thought to where faulkner stands at a time when we are asking ourselves some difficult and longoverdue questions about our countrys historic difficulties when it comes to matters of race. Was he something of a pioneer on those issues or was he or another white writer profiting off of racist caricatures of black americans . Dr. Michael gorra, as you might imagine, has some thoughts on that. He is a professor of English Literature at Smith College in massachusetts. He is the author of several books including portrait of a novel, the making of an american masterpiece, which was a finalist for the pool surprise and bio
The 1918 flu pandemic altered American Life in ways that are familiar to those living through the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Conflicting information left people wary and fearful. College classes were held outside, sports were canceled, asks or challenged as unamerican, and fines imposed on those who refuse to wear them. Next, Christopher Mcknight nichols recounts how the country experienced the events of a century ago and the lessons we might learn. He directs the Oregon University center for humanities. Since the pandemic has begun, for our purposes, since we shut down in march, they thing that has been driving our analysis here as historians is what is the historical precedent . Obviously, 1918 is the one that comes to mind and we have nobody better to tell us about 1918 that my friend christopher nichols. Hes an associate professor of history at oregon state. Hes the director of the Oregon State Center for humanities and the founder of their citizenship and crisis initiative. He als
Conference. They also provided the video. We have three panelists today. I think i have this order right. Dr. Danielle mcguire who is a great friend from grad school and colleague. She is an author and historian and an independent scholar now and the author of tat the dark end of the street. We also have i have lost track of who is going. I think its kalonji is going next. Dr. Kalonji walton who is the director of global black studies at western carolina. And our third panelist is dr. David goldberg who is an associate professor at Wayne State University. The chair and commenter today is jamon jordan who is a the detroit president of the detroit chapter of asalh and a tour leader and historian of all things africanamerican detroit. Really an Incredible Community scholar out of detroit. A wonderful set of folks, going to help us think about politics in detroit and michigan and how to make sense of that. Im going to throw it over to the panel now. Again, thank you all for being here. All
60s. This event was part of the association of the study for africanAmerican Life and conference, and they provided the video. So glad to be here, and so very excited to chop it up a little bit about brother winfords excellent book. Let me jump into my comments. It chronicles the life of the civil rights period. This is a trench at work in this work he replaces wheeler in the center of a compelling civil rights narrative there by casting a new light on the role this banker played in the middle of the century. I can speak to the way his book is making history, and also the Civil Rights Movement, the black peoples struggle in North Carolina in particular. So from wheelers bank in d durham, he was a insider and power player that understood the calculous of social change dictated approaches to the pursuit of freedom. This is going to be one of the questions i certainly want to knock around with dr. Winford in terms of the dynamic enter play that we see with wheeler and the ways in which he
Black political organizing that culminated in the election of course black mayors like cleveland, atlanta and detroit from 1967 to 1974. They feel particularly vital right now as blackled struggles in the wake of Police Murders of george floyd in minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in louisville, and kenosha have sounded the call for black liberation while raising questions about the role of electoral politics and black freedom struggles. 50 years ago gibsons landmark election came on the heels was 1967 rebellion in newark when the Police Beating of an unarmed black man, john smith, had whit supremacy and its enforcers in blue in the jim crow north. Amid heightened racist renewal projects and educational injustice, it recalled countless Police Killings that had gone unpublished into the years and brought thousands into the streets that july. State police and National Guardsmen were brought into the city to violently suppress the uprising, claiming two dozen lives in the process including ed ed