CINCINNATI, OH (October 4, 2018) – The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will host Dr. Jakobi Williams on Tuesday, October 16, 2018, to discuss racial coalition politics as part of the museum’s community conversations series. The discussion, on the 50
th anniversary of Tommie Smith’s and John Carlos’ Black Power salute at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, is in partnership with the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Africana Studies and Union Institute & University. This program is free and open to the public. RSVPs are requested.
Dr. Williams is the author of From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago, published in 2013 by the University of North Carolina Press under its prestigious John Hope Franklin Series. Dr. Williams was born and raised on the south side of Chicago (Englewood). Prior to joining the faculty at Indiana University, he served as an associate professor of History at the University of Kentucky, an adjunct professor at UCLA, and spent one year as a Chancellor Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Williams’ research interests are centered on questions of resistance and the social justice revolutions found within the historic African American community.
“The power of protest cannot be understated,” says Jacqueline K. Dace, Deputy Director of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “Tommie Smith and John Carlos shocked the world with their Black Power salute in 1968, using the Summer Olympic Games podium to challenge the status quo and highlight the plight of African Americans. It was revolutionary, and the images of the protest are iconic.”
Dr. Williams will discuss the past and present climate of racial coalition politics at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on Tuesday, October 16, 2018, at 6:00 p.m. This program is free and open to the public. RSVPs are requested. This community conversation is in partnership with the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Africana Studies and Union Institute & University.
For more information about the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center visit freedomcenter.org.