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Listen to the PodcastWhat if the conventional narrative of the 1960s civil rights era, by its very nature, limits the success, legal achievements, and persistence of Black Americans for generations? In Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights, author Dylan C. Penningroth maintains that the fight for civil rights didn't begin with famous marches and courtroom cases of the 1960s. Instead, his research stretches from the last decades of slavery to the 1970s, and challenges nearly every aspect of our traditional understanding of civil rights history as we know it.
Drawing on long-forgotten sources found in the basements of county courthouses across the nation, Penningroth centers the everyday lives of Black Americans and sheds light on their centuries-long tradition of legal knowledge to assert their rights, protect their families, and shape their communities.
Dylan C. Penningroth is a professor of law and Morrison Professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in African American history and legal history and is a MacArthur Fellow. Before the Movement won eleven book prizes and was shortlisted for four more. He is also the author of the award-winning book, The Claims of Kinfolk: African American Property and Community in the Nineteenth-Century South.
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After the forum, a book signing with the author will be available. ThirdSpace Reading Room will be on site for book sales.
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Online ticket sales for this forum will conclude on Thursday, September 10th. For more information regarding ticketing/registration, contact Stacy Roper at (216) 621-0082.
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The livestream will be available beginning at 12:00pm. Have questions for the Q&A? Text them to 330.541.5794.
Production and distribution of City Club forums in partnership with Ideastream Public Media is generously provided by PNC and the United Black Fund.
The ideas expressed in City Club forums are those of the speakers, and not of the City Club, Ideastream Public Media, or their sponsors.