The Civic Discourse Project: ‘Citizenship and the African American Experience’

Two of the nation’s most respected scholars of race and politics visited Arizona State University’s Tempe campus to participate in the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership’s third annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day lecture, “Citizenship and the African American Experience.”

This conversation with Angela Dillard, the Richard A. Meisler collegiate professor of Afroamerican & African studies at the University of Michigan, and Peter Myers, professor of political science and U.S. constitutional law, at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, makes the case that the Civil Rights Movement was marked by an intellectual and ideological diversity that incorporated a wide range of perspectives in debates about the nature of citizenship and the “proper” strategies for civil rights activism. Some of these threads stretch forward to our contemporary context, while others connect us profoundly to American founding principles.

The School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership’s annual Martin Luther King Day lecture provides an indispensable forum for the school to include historical and contemporary conversations about race in American society within the framework of civic discourse that inspires all of our public programs.

MORE: Read about the latest season of The Civic Discourse Project or see all this season’s episodes.