Power to the People

From its inception in the 18th century with Freedom's Journal and on to the present day, the Black Press has been in business to advance the fight for civil and human rights. Most newspapers have struggled to balance their quest for economic viability with their commitment to the empowerment of Black people politically and socially. However, publications serving African-American communities have never been monolithic.

Dr. Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a Professor of Africana Studies at Morehouse College, will present her examination of the Black Press in Atlanta during the critical social movement era of the 1960s and 1970s. The three major Black newspapers of the city:

• The Atlanta Daily World (Est. 1928), a politically conservative publication, was born at the height of Jim Crow and sought to cater to the city's Black Middle class.
• The Atlanta Inquirer (Est. 1960) was launched to be the mouthpiece of the Atlanta Student Movement, as students in the city's HBCUs waged a nonviolent war against segregation.
• The Atlanta Voice (Est. 1966) was conceived to reflect the concerns and actions of Atlanta's diverse Black Community as the Civil Rights Movement ebbed and the Black Power era emerged.

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About the Speaker

Dr. Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a Professor of Africana Studies at Morehouse College, is co-founder of the college’s Black Men’s Research Institute and principal investigator for the Morehouse Movement, Memory, and Justice Initiative. Both are supported by grants from the Mellon Foundation.

Myrick-Harris’ research focuses on the intersection of race, class, culture, and gender in the quest for social change and social justice, with emphasis on leadership during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.

Her publications include “Call the Women: The Tradition of African American Female Activism in Georgia During the Civil Rights Movement,” in the book Southern Black Women in the Modern Civil Rights Movement, and “Behind the Scenes: Two Women of the Free Southern Theater,” a chapter in Women of the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers & Torchbearers, 1941-1965.

Her recent historical context study for the National Parks Service, How They Lived, focuses on the family home of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King and the childhood home of the first Black mayor of Atlanta, Maynard H. Jackson, Jr. She is currently working on the edited volume, Keep Pushing! The Atlanta Student Movement –From Quest for Human Rights to Demand for Black Power.

The History and Legacy of Black Entrepreneurship in the United States speaker series provides the Keller Center community an opportunity to learn about the role of Black entrepreneurs in the growth and success of our country from the country’s most prominent academic scholars, researchers, and historians.

This speaker series is moderated by Ihsan Beezer and Keith Hollingsworth.