Lecture in Literacy Studies
William Sturkey is an historian of Modern American, African American, and Southern History with a particular research focus on race in the American South, working-class African American communities, and the Civil Rights Movement. He received his PhD from Ohio State and is now postdoctoral fellow at University of North Carolina. Dr. Sturkey has been invited by LiteracyStudies@OSU to give a talk that draws from his forthcoming book on the role of literacy in the black youth freedom movement.
“‘I Want to be a First-Class Citizen’: Black Youth Literacy and Empowerment in the Mississippi Freedom Schools”
In 1964, an estimated 3,000 black youths attended Freedom Schools during the epic Mississippi Freedom Summer. Designed to supplement Mississippi’s racially segregated and inferior black public schools, Freedom Schools offered remedial reading and history lessons while also helping to train a new generation of civil rights activists. Read more on the Literacy Studies website.
The LiteracyStudies@OSU lecture series has made OSU the place for both accomplished and emerging scholars to present major studies or preview works-in-progress. For more information, contact Harvey Graff.
