"Sharing the Prize: Reconsidering the Economics of the Civil Rights Movement," to be held on Wednesday, March 23, 2016 from 4-6 p.m. in the Cape Cod Lounge at the Campus Center.  The participants will be Professor Gavin Wright, author of Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South (2013), and three commentators: Professor John Bracey (W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies), Professor Gerald Friedman (Department of Economics), and Provost Katherine Newman (Department of Sociology).  There will be time for questions and discussion from the audience and a reception will follow the symposium.

Professor Wright is Emeritus William Robertson Coe Professor of American Economic History at Stanford University and one of the leading economic historians of the U.S. South.  In his book, he argues that economic goals were fundamental to the Civil Rights Movement and that it was an economic as well as a moral and legal revolution, opening new opportunities in education, employment, and occupational status for African Americans.  He argues further that white southerners also benefited from the Civil Rights revolution and explores why they for so long defended a system that was not in their own best economic interests.

Additional information about the symposium, which is being co-sponsored by several departments and programs, will be provided prior to March 23. Professors Gerald Friedman, Johan Mathew, Priyanka Srivastava, and Carol Heim are co-organizing the symposium.  We hope you will be able to attend and that you will spread the word about this event as widely as possible among faculty, staff, students, and others who may be interested in attending.