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.

"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. Attendees may be videotaped for the upcoming episode of this event on YouTube.