The Department of History at the University of Akron welcomes Prof. Waldo E. Martin for the 2016 George W. Knepper Endowed Lecture on Monday, October 10. Martin is the Alexander F. & May T. Morrison Professor of American History & Citizenship at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also received his Ph.D. Professor Martin will present "'Ready for the Revolution?' History and the Black Panther Party" at 5:30 p.m. in 111 Simmons Hall on the University of Akron campus. The lecture and following reception are free and open to the public.
Martin is the author of No Coward Soldiers: Black Cultural Politics in Postwar America and, most recently, of Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party. A leading scholar of modern African American cultural and intellectual history, his teaching and scholarship focus particularly on race relations, African American identity, and civil rights. Martin is also active in bringing African American history to a wider audience, partnering with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture on a traveling exhibit that examines civil rights from the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 to the March on Washington in 1963. He is currently completing a book entitled, A Change is Gonna Come: The Cultural Politics of the Black Freedom Struggle and the Making of Modern America.
The George W. Knepper Lecture was created in 1994 to honor Dr. George W. Knepper, a specialist of Ohio history and UA distinguished professor emeritus of history. This year’s lecture is presented in collaboration with Kent State University’s History Department. For more information, call the University of Akron’s Department of History at 330-972-7006.