“Hard Times: Black Appeals Local and Global” lecture series | 2013-14
Hard Times: Black Appeals Local and Global is a year-long series of public lectures geared towards promoting discussions about the history and future of human rights activism in the black diaspora and beyond. This project is part of the Human Rights Program’s “Human Rights at Home” and is co-sponosored by the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture.
Series Schedule
October 17, 2013 - “Blacks In and Out of the Left” – A discussion with author Michael C. Dawson.
In Blacks In and Out of the Left (2013), Michael C. Dawson investigates the causes and consequences of the decline of black radicalism as a force in American politics and argues that the conventional left has failed to take race sufficiently seriously as a historical force in reshaping American institutions, politics, and civil society. In this book presentation, Professor Dawson will be joined by Political Science Professor Robert Gooding-Williams, who will provide commentary after Dawson’s presentation. The event is co-sponsored by the University of Chicago’s Human Rights Program, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture, and the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory (3CT).
Michael C. Dawson is the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago, as well as the founding and current Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the university. From 2000-04 Dawson and Lawrence Bobo conducted six public opinion studies on the racial divide in the United States, creating the richest data on this issue that exists. His research interests have included the development of quantitative models of African American political behavior and public opinion, the political effects of urban poverty and African American political ideology. Most recently he is the author of Not in Our Lifetimes: The Future of Black Politics, which looks at political opinions among blacks in the last decade and contrasts them with white attitudes. His other books include Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies and Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics.
Professor Dawson’s lecture is the second in a 2013-14 series, “Hard Times: Black Appeals Local and Global,” presented by the Human Rights Program and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. This project is inspired by An Appeal to the World, the 1947 petition to the United Nations Human Rights Commission by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, coordinated by Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. A culminating conference in 2014 will examine struggles for human rights by African Americans locally and internationally.
_______________
January 16, 2014 - “Eslanda: The Large & Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson” – A discussion with author Barbara Ransby.
In Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson, biographer Barbara Ransby, Professor of History, African-American Studies and Gender and Women Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago, refocuses attention on Essie, one of the most important and fascinating black women of the twentieth century. For this presentation Professor Ransby will be joined by Cathy Cohen, David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago who will provide commentary.
Eslanda "Essie" Cardozo Goode Robeson lived a colorful and amazing life. Her career and commitments took her many places: colonial Africa in 1936, the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, the founding meeting of the United Nations, Nazi-occupied Berlin, Stalin's Russia, and China two months after Mao's revolution. She was a woman of unusual accomplishment--an anthropologist, a prolific journalist, a tireless advocate of women's rights, an outspoken anti-colonial and antiracist activist, and an internationally sought-after speaker. Yet historians for the most part have confined Essie to the role of Mrs. Paul Robeson, a wife hidden in the large shadow cast by her famous husband. In this masterful book, Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson, biographer and university professor Barbara Ransby, Ph.D, refocuses attention on Essie, one of the most important and fascinating black women of the twentieth century.
Professor Ransby's lecture is the third in a 2013-2014 series, “Hard Times: Black Appeals Local and Global,” presented by the Human Rights Program and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. This project is inspired by An Appeal to the World, the 1947 petition to the United Nations Human Rights Commission by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, coordinated by W.E.B. Du Bois. Our next presentation for this series will be by Bernardine Dohrn, Emeritus Professor of Law at Northwestern University, on February 20, 2014. Please visit humanrights.uchicago.edu for more information.
_______________
February 20, 2014 - “Seize The Little Moment” – A discussion with Bernadine Dohrn.
In this presentation, Bernardine Dohrn, founding Director of the Children and Family Justice Center and Clinical Associate Professor at Northwestern University School of Law (retired), will discuss how U.S. activists, lawyers and the U.S. Supreme Court have noted U.S. isolation from -- and elaborated upon -- global standards of justice for young people given extreme sentences, such as juvenile death penalty and juvenile life without parole. Dohrn will be joined by Randolph Stone, Director of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Project and Clinical Professor at the University of Chicago Law School, who will provide commentary after Dohrn’s presentation.
Professor Dohrn’s presentation is the fourth installment of the “Hard Times: Black Appeals Local and Global” lecture series. The “Hard Times: Black Appeals Local and Global” project consists of a year-long series of public lectures with by-invitation dinners afterwards to generate discussion about the history and future of human rights activism in the black diaspora and beyond. This project is part of the Human Rights Program’s “Human Rights at Home” initiative. It takes off from our interest in An Appeal to the World, the 1947 petition to the United Nations by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The petition’s authors included Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, Earl B. Dickerson, Milton Konvitz, William R. Ming, Jr., Leslie S. Perry, and Rayford Logan. We are particularly interested in the participation of Dickerson and Ming, for both are graduates of the University of Chicago Law School and important figures in the history of the South Side.
_______________
April 29, 2014 - “When The Levees Broke: A History of Un-Civil Rights in America” – A lecture by Carol Anderson.
In this presentation, Carol Anderson, author of Eyes off the Prize: The United Nations and the African-American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955 and African American Studies and History at Emory University, will discuss her book, work and the need for continued human rights activism. Anderson can be considered a new era actvist who understands her place in history and the importance of those who came before. The Regenstein Library is very pleased to host this event and will transfer an original copy of Dr. W.E.B. Dubois' 1947 NAACP petition to the UNited Nations (An Appeal to the World) to the University's Special Collections.
Professor Anderson’s presentation is the fifth installment of the “Hard Times: Black Appeals Local and Global” lecture series. The “Hard Times: Black Appeals Local and Global” project consists of a year-long series of public lectures with by-invitation dinners afterwards to generate discussion about the history and future of human rights activism in the black diaspora and beyond. This project is part of the Human Rights Program’s “Human Rights at Home” initiative. It takes off from our interest in An Appeal to the World, the 1947 petition to the United Nations by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The petition’s authors included Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, Earl B. Dickerson, Milton Konvitz, William R. Ming, Jr., Leslie S. Perry, and Rayford Logan. We are particularly interested in the participation of Dickerson and Ming, for both are graduates of the University of Chicago Law School and important figures in the history of the South Side