PULLMAN – WSU Tri-Cities history professor Robert Bauman will deliver the keynote address during WSU Pullman’s Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, in Smith CUE 203.
Dedicated in memory of Dean Judy Mitchell and Interim Dean Lenoar Foster, College of Education, the event’s other highlights will include:
• “Blues for a King,” composed by Gregory W. Yasinitsky, Regents professor, and performed by Jazz Northwest
• Presentation of the MLK Distinguished Service Awards
• A live videostream available at experience.wsu.edu.
This event is free. Everyone is invited.
• Presentation of the MLK Distinguished Service Awards
• A live videostream available at experience.wsu.edu.
This event is free. Everyone is invited.
Mitchell and Foster were well known for supporting diversity in the Pullman community.
Bauman teaches American history and public history courses at WSU Tri-Cities, including courses on the civil rights movement, immigration, migration and ethnic identity, and the Cold War. His research interests are in the areas of race and ethnicity in the American west and poverty and public policy.
His speech titled “Unsung Heroes of the Long Civil Rights Movement” will focus on ordinary people’s activism beyond the typical civil rights time frame of the 1950s and 1960s.
“I’m hoping the audience will leave the talk understanding that the civil rights movement was longer and more complex than it is often described,” Bauman said. “It is also important to note that the movement took place in all parts of the U.S., including the Pacific Northwest, and the heroes were ordinary people intent on expanding American democracy.”
Felicia Gaskins, associate vice president for WSU’s Division of Student Affairs, Equity and Diversity, said Bauman’s work involves a multitude of races.
“This inclusionary approach is exactly what Martin Luther King Jr. taught,” Gaskins said. “The civil rights movement is important to everyone and I’m pleased Dr. Bauman will emphasize that during our program.”
Bauman’s most recent publications include “Jim Crow in the Tri-Cities, 1943-1950,” in Pacific Northwest Quarterly, and “The Black Power and Chicano Movements in the Poverty Wars in Los Angeles,” published in the Journal of Urban History. His book, “Race & The War on Poverty from Watts to East L.A.,” was released last December. He is currently working on another book called “Religion, Community Organizations and the Long War on Poverty.”
