The Aspen Institute

Moderated by Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Professor at Ohio State University, and Leah Wright Rigueur, Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, this three-day symposium will explore the strategies, leadership, and policies of the civil rights movement from Martin Luther King, Jr. to today. Where are we, as a nation, in terms of achieving equality in education, employment, housing, voting rights, and the justice system, regardless of race? This seminar will deconstruct myths of the civil rights movement, examine federal policies and legislation that contributed both towards and against gains in equality, and identify work that remains to be done to create a truly equal society.

Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries is a Professor at Ohio State University. He holds a B.A. in History from Morehouse, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in American History, with a specialization in African-American history from Duke University. While completing his graduate work, he lived periodically in Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the modern the civil rights movement.  After time well spent in the “Heart of Dixie,” Hasan joined the faculty at The Ohio State University in the history department. Hasan teaches graduate and undergraduate seminars on the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement, and surveys in African American and American history.

Dr. Leah Wright Rigueur is a Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. A historian by training, she received her B.A. in history from Dartmouth College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Princeton University. Leah’s research interests include 20th Century United States political and social history and modern African-American history. Her work emphasizes race, civil rights, political ideology, the American two-party system and the presidency. At the Kennedy School, she teaches courses on race and American politics, riot and backlash in the United States, and the Civil Rights Movement.