Black-power scholar to headline USC gathering

A prominent civil rights scholar and expert on the black-power movement comes to USC this week as keynote speaker for USC’s Media and Civil Rights History Symposium.

Peniel Joseph, a Tufts University professor and national political commentator, will deliver a public address Friday night at Zion Baptist Church, 801 Washington St. The iconic brick church is an appropriate setting for the talk, since it served as the launch point for civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s, said Christopher Frear, a USC doctoral student and co-director, along with Ramon Jackson, of the symposium.

“His emphasis (is) on the black-power movement,” Frear said of Joseph and his scholarship. “A key part of that was African-American political activism, which is an important topic in South Carolina because of voting access that started in the mid-to-late 1960s and 1970.”

On Thursday, U.S. Rep. James Clyburn will join Joseph for the symposium’s opening reception and a conversation about books, race relations and the media. The invitation-only event will take place 5-7 p.m. at USC’s Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library.

In conjunction with the symposium, the Hollings Library has on display a collection of African-American freedom struggle documents, memorabilia and film footage pertinent to the civil rights movement. That exhibition is available for public viewing during regular library hours.

Joseph is the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Tufts and author of a number of books on the black-power movement, including a new biography of Stokely Carmichael, a leader of SNCC, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

Clyburn penned his autobiography last year, “Blessed Experiences: Genuinely Southern, Proudly Black,” published by USC Press.

Joseph is a popular observer of issues related to race and culture. He has been on National Public Radio, “The Colbert Report,” PBS and MSNBC and has published pieces in The Washington Post and the New York Times.

The three-day conference, sponsored by USC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications, will include daily presentations of scholarly papers on topics that focus on civil rights and media history.

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 11:32 PM with the headline "Black-power scholar to headline USC gathering."