TA News

Bicentennial Speaker Series: Derrick E. White, Ph.D., Monday, Jan. 21 @ 7 p.m.

TA will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 21, with a Bicentennial Speaker Series presentation by Professor Derrick E. White, entitled “Making a King: The Contested Legacies of a Civil Rights Icon.” This special event, free and open to the public, will take place at the Martha Jane Rich Theater at 7 p.m.

Visiting Associate Professor of African & African American Studies in the Department of History at Dartmouth College, Professor White is a scholar of modern Black history with an emphasis on intellectual, political, and sports history. He is the author of The Challenge of Blackness: The Institute of the Black World and Political Activism in the 1970s (Florida, 2011) and co-editor of Winning While Losing: Civil Rights, The Conservative Movement and the Presidency from Nixon to Obama (Florida, 2014). He is currently working on a book tentatively titled, Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Florida A & M and the Rise and Fall of a Black College Football Dynasty.

“Making a King” will examine how various organizations have interpreted King’s life and work in the decades after his assassination. Professor White will explore King’s socio-political philosophy in the months before his death, and how organizations such as the Institute of the Black World and the Martin Luther King Center clashed over the activist’s legacy. Finally, Professor White will review how the modern interpretation of King’s life shapes contemporary civil rights policy.

“We are hoping that students and educators from TA and across the Upper Valley will come hear Professor White, with the hope that his message may provide our greater community reason to pause, reflect on our commitment to diversity, celebrate the diversity of our community, and recognize that the battle for equality continues,” said Cameron Cudhea, former TA Board President and Bicentennial Speaker Series Chair.