Feb 04
Civil Rights Legacies: Martin, Malcolm, Gwen, and Julian
Description
New scholarship is deepening our understanding of both well-known and lesser-known activists in the Civil Rights Movement. In this conversation, Ashley Farmer, Pam Horowitz, and Peniel Joseph will discuss their research related to the legacies of civil rights activists Julian Bond, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gwen Patton, and Malcolm X.
Speakers
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Ashley Farmer
University of Texas at Austin
Ashley Farmer is a historian of black women's history, intellectual history, and radical politics. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Departments of History and African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her book, Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era is the first comprehensive intellectual history of women in the black power movement. The book introduces new and overlooked women activists into the history of black power, examines the depth and breath of their political and intellectual engagement, and shows the relationship between women’s gendered theorizing and the trajectory of the black power movement. She is also the co-editor of New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition, an anthology that examines four central themes within the black intellectual tradition: Black internationalism, religion and spirituality, racial politics and struggles for social justice, and black radicalism.
She is also the author of several articles about African American women’s black power activism and intellectual production and her research interests include African American history, gender history, and intellectual history. She is a graduate of Spelman College and holds a Ph.D. in African American Studies and an M.A. in History from Harvard University.
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Pam Horowitz
Southern Poverty Law Center
Pam Horowitz was one of the first lawyers hired by the Southern Poverty Law Center's co-founders Morris Dees and Joe Levin, joining the organization in 1974. During her time at the Southern Poverty Law Center, she successfully argued an historic sex discrimination case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Horowitz practiced law for 30 years with a Washington, D.C., firm. She also worked in partnership with her late husband, Julian Bond, who served as the SPLC’s first president, on multiple public, private, and academic projects – including an annual civil rights tour of the South and projects involving the SPLC.
She is the editor, with Jeanne Theoharis, of Julian Bond's Time to Teach: A History of the Southern Civil Rights Movement, and wrote the Forward to the book.
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Peniel Joseph
University of Texas at Austin
Peniel Joseph holds a joint professorship at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the History Department at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the founding director of the LBJ School's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. His career focus has been on "Black Power Studies," which encompasses interdisciplinary fields such as Africana studies, law and society, women's and ethnic studies, and political science.
Prior to joining the UT faculty, Dr. Joseph was a professor at Tufts University, where he founded the school's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. In addition to being a frequent commentator on issues of race, democracy, and civil rights, his most recent book is The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. He also wrote the award-winning books Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America and Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama. Peniel Joseph's book Stokely: A Life has been called the definitive biography of Stokely Carmichael, the man who popularized the phrase "Black power." Dr. Joseph is also the editor of The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era and Neighborhood Rebels: Black Power at the Local Level