Social Justice Scholarship

Social Justice

Here are some of the many articles and presentations by Martin on the subject of civil rights and social justice – the focus of his forthcoming book.

Audrey Nell Edwards: pioneer for racial justice

February 1, 2021

https://www.washington post.com/history/2021/02/01/audrey-nell-edward-st-augustine-segregation-mlk/

“The Civil Rights Movement: The Defining American Story”
(presentation at LBJ Presidential Library, April 9, 2014)

Martin made a presentation at the Educator Workshop at the Civil Rights Summit in Austin, Texas. The Civil Rights Summit was probably the largest civil rights conference in our nation’s history with presentations by Presidents Barack Obama, three former Presidents (Carter, Clinton, and George W. Bush) as well as a host of civil rights luminaries (Andrew Young, John Lewis, etc.).

He served as the lone moderator for the ensuing hour-plus conversation between civil rights icons Julian Bond and Bernice King.

Glenn Olds: maverick college president faces FBI pressure to rescind invitation to MLK

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-the-fbi-tried-to-block-martin-luther-kings-commencement-speech/372258/

June 11, 2014

Note: a 2016 Los Angeles Times story indicated that this piece, as well as “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” were the two required readings for new FBI agents under former FBI Director James Comey, to guard against excesses like J. Edgar Hoover’s surveillance of Martin Luther King (which Comey called “shameful”): https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-fbi-mlk-history-lesson-20160814-snap-story.html

Marshall Bloom: comet of the counterculture

May 26, 2016

https://www.gazettenet.com/Southern-exposure-Schooled-in-American-prejudice-2423921

Dan Smith: one generation removed from slavery

June 19, 2020

https://mdobrow.medium.com/juneteenth-the-son-of-a-slave-reflects-on-the-america-he-sees-today-b45e1ed80c2f

“Ever So Close to Silence” (presentation at New England Historical Association, April 26. 2014)

Martin delivered the keynote address at a conference with over 100 historians representing schools such as Harvard, Cornell, Brown, Williams, etc.: http://www.newenglandhistorians.org/conferences/past-conferences/spr14-conf/