Calvin To Host Expert on Race and the North

April 25, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

An expert on racism in the north, who has strong opinions on Michigan's recent
affirmative action discussions, will be the keynote speaker for the 2006 Bouma
Lecture at Calvin College.

Thomas Sugrue, a native of Detroit, will speak at 3:30 pm on Monday, May 1 in
Gezon Auditorium in a talk that is free and open to all.

Sugrue is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor of History and Sociology
at the University of Pennsylvania.

His landmark book on Detroit, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, was recently
named by Princeton University Press as one of its 100 most influential books of
the past 100 years.

His upcoming talk at Calvin will draw from his forthcoming book, Sweet Land of
Liberty: The Unfinished Struggle for Racial Equality in the North.

He will discuss the largely unknown Northern battlegrounds where grassroots
activists fought to end discrimination and segregation: the rapidly expanding
postwar suburbs.

Says Calvin College urban studies professor Mark Mulder: ""A lot of attention
has been given to the heroic battles for civil rights in the south - and
rightly so. However, Sugrue's forthcoming book and talk at Calvin turns our
attention to the suburbs of northern cities and focuses our attention on those
who fought to open those communities to people of all races. We tend to think
of suburbs as monolithically white, but Sugrue recounts a more complex story."

A recent Detroit Free Press story on Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm's push to
protect affirmative action policies in the state included comments from
Sugrue.

The Freep story noted that: "Michigan voters will decide in November whether
the state should ban government affirmative action programs that give
preferential treatment to individuals or groups based on their race, color,
ethnicity, gender or national origin."

Sugrue said: "We cannot continue to sweep the problems of segregation and
discrimination under the rug."

For the full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/sugrue.htm
For more on the Bouma Lectures see
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/sociology/bouma_lecture_series/index1.htm

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Received on Tue Apr 25 16:46:02 2006