Liberalism, Black Power, American Politics Book Talk Nov. 2

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Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics, 1965-1980

Program with author Devin Fergus
Monday, Nov. 2, 2009
Reception at 5 p.m. | Program at 5:45 p.m.
Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Free and open to the public
Information: Liza Terll, Friends of the Library (liza_terll@unc.edu, 919-962-4207)

Hear an interview with Devin Fergus.

In his book Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics, 1965-1980, author Devin Fergus returns to the tumultuous era of Johnson, Nixon, Carter, and Helms and challenges us to see familiar political developments through a new lens.

Focusing especially on North Carolina, Fergus reveals how liberal engagement helped to bring a radical civic ideology back from the brink of political violence and social nihilism.

Author Devin Fergus will speak Nov. 2 at Wilson Library

He covers Malcolm X Liberation University and Soul City, two largely forgotten, federally funded black nationalist experiments in North Carolina, and the political scene in Winston-Salem, where Black Panthers were elected to office in surprising numbers.

Fergus is assistant professor of modern United States and African American history at Vanderbilt University. In 2007, he was a Fellow of the Southern Historical Collection, and his book draws upon research conducted at UNC.

His talk is part of the Southern Historical Collection Book Series and is being presented in conjunction with the exhibit We Shall Not Be Moved: African Americans in the South, 18th Century to the Present, on view in the Melba Remig Saltarelli Exhibit Room of Wilson Library through Feb. 5, 2010.

Related Links

• Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics, 1965-1980 (book information from University of Georgia Press)
• We Shall Not Be Moved: African Americans in the South, 18th Century to the Present (exhibit information)
• Southern Historical Collection