Feb. 22-23 Event Assesses Progress Since Birth of Du Bois, Death of King
Clark Atlanta University (CAU) President Ronald A. Johnson today announced that the University will highlight its observance of African-American History Month with a national symposium examining race relations and economic inequality 150 years since the birth of African-American intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois, a former instructor and administrator at the University, and 50 years since the assassination of iconic civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Feb. 22-23 forum is open to the public, with all sessions held in the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library, 111 James P. Brawley Drive, S.W., in Atlanta. Admission is free, but guests must RSVP online at www.cau.edu/curc.
Scholars participating in the symposium include: Clayborne Carson, Ph.D., professor of history and director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University; Robert Franklin, Ph.D., president emeritus of Morehouse College and former president of the Interdenominational Theological Center, who now serves as the James T. and Berta R. Laney Chair of Moral Leadership at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology; Julianne Malveaux, Ph.D., Washington, D.C.-based, economist, author, social and political commentator; Marcus Hunter, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology and chair of African-American studies at UCLA; Britt Rusert, Ph.D., assistant professor in the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; and Aldon Morris, Ph.D., award-winning author and professor of sociology at Northwestern University.
“W. E. B. DuBois is inextricably tied to the great intellectual legacy of Clark Atlanta University,” Johnson says. “From these very grounds he formalized the systematic study of contemporary American sociology. We are therefore morally and ethically bound to continue this work by measuring the progress of our community and, where necessary, strategically advocating for the changes that will sustain and advance our nation as a whole. This includes creating community discourse so that the unparalleled strategic analysis of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. can be examined and applied to present-day efforts in pursuit of socioeconomic justice, freedom and equality for all.”
The symposium is sponsored with funding provided by the Russell Sage Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline supported by the American Sociological Association and the National Science Foundation. The event is co-sponsored by Clark Atlanta University’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Creativity along with the University’s Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice.