Left of Black Presents: "Small Talk at FHI" with Dr. Crystal Sanders

Under Plessy v. Ferguson, in the days before desegregation, southern states were able to fund the graduate education of Black students by forming separate-but-equal programs at tax-supported HBCU’s or having them attend a historically white university in their state. Instead, these “segregation scholarships’ ended up paying for many of these African American graduate students to be sent away by relocating them in the North, out West, and in the Heartland of the U.S., thus robbing Black colleges of this influx in financial support. After Brown v. Board of Education passed and ended segregation, these scholarships started to decline but with no consorted effort to institutionalize graduate programs at public Black colleges in the South, which increased the racial disparity in American higher education.

Dr. Crystal R. Sanders, Associate Professor of African American Studies at Emory University, examines how the efforts to preserve segregation led to the underfunding of Black colleges in her new book, A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregation Scholarships, and the Debt Owed to Public HBCUs, just published by The University of North Carolina Press on October 15, 2024. Dr. Sanders also brings a spotlight to the myriad challenges faced by these Black graduate students who were far from home including isolation, financial hardship, and discrimination. A Forgotten Migration is part of the distinguished John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture compiled by UNC Press to publish “…pathbreaking books informed by several disciplines…”

On Thursday, November 21st , from 6:30 to 8pm, Dr. Sanders will join host Mark Anthony Neal, the creator and host of the Webby Award-nominated and Davey Award-winning series Left of Black, at the Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) to discuss her new book, still hot of the press. Free copies of A Forgotten Migration will be given away at the event on a first-come-first-serve basis where attendees can also have their book signed.

Dr. Sanders is an award-winning historian of the United States in the twentieth century. Her research and teaching interests include African American History, Black Women's History, and the History of Black Education. She received her B.A. (cum laude) in History and Public Policy from Duke University and a Ph.D. in History from Northwestern University. During the 2020-2021 academic year, she was a fellow at the National Humanities Center.

Dr. Sanders is also the author of A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi's Black Freedom Struggle published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016 as part of the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture. The book won the 2017 Critics Choice Award from the American Educational Research Association and the 2017 New Scholar’s Book Award from Division F of the American Educational Research Association. The book was also a finalist for the 2016 Hooks National Book Award. Sanders’ work can also be found in many of the leading history journals including the Journal of Southern History, the North Carolina Historical Review, and the Journal of African American History.

Sanders is the recipient of a host of fellowships and prizes. These honors include the C. Vann Woodward Prize from the Southern Historical Association, the Huggins-Quarles Award from the Organization of American Historians, and the Equity Award from the American Historical Association. She has also received an Andrew Mellon Graduate Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a Visiting Scholars Fellowship at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

“Left of Black Presents: Small Talk at FHI,” is a new event sub-series inspired by the legendary jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron’s first album, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. It is an attempt to recreate the same type of intimacy ever present in Scott-Heron’s groundbreaking work. Named after famed African American historian John Hope Franklin, the FHI became the institutional home of the award-winning web series in 2019 during its 10th season. Attendees may be videotaped for the upcoming episode of this event on Left of Black.

Free copies of A Forgotten Migration will be provided to the first attendees of the event! Get your boo signed by the author afterwards.

The author, Dr. Crystal R. Sanders, is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and an award-winning historian of the United States in the twentieth century.

Catering provided by Black-owned OnBoard Charcuterie of Raleigh.

Host or Publisher Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University