Feb. 23, 2010
Contact:
Elizabeth Klipp, 404-413-1356
University Relations
ATLANTA - Georgia State's University Library is hosting two lectures next week, the first focusing on the life of African-American intellectual Hubert Harrison and the second on the history of U.S. public transportation.
Harrison will be discussed in a lecture by biographer Jeffrey B. Perry, who recently published, "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918." Perry's lecture will be held at 3 p.m. on March 2 in the Special Collections and Archives Department on the 8th floor of Library South.
Harrison, a skilled writer, orator, educator, critic and political activist, made his mark in the United States by struggling against class and racial oppression. He helped create a rich and vibrant intellectual life among African-Americans and worked for the enlightened development of the lives of "the common people."
Perry's lecture will offer insights on race, class, religion, immigration, war, democracy and social change in America. The event is co-sponsored by the Special Collections and Archives of the University Library, the Association of Georgia State University Historians, the African American Studies Department and the Department of History.
The Library's second lecture will focus on, "Public Transit, Ownership, and Labor in the United States, 1935-1975." Archivist and historian William Jordan Patty will present his research on the history of public transit and its workers in the United States at 12:30 p.m. on March 3 in the Colloquium Room on the 8th floor of Library South.
Patty is the final recipient of the 2009 Merl E. Reed Fellowship in Southern Labor History, an award bestowed annually by the Southern Labor Archives, which is part of Georgia State University Library's Special Collections and Archives Department. He is currently a processing archivist at George Mason University Libraries Special Collection and Archives.
Both lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://www.library.gsu.edu.