This event has been canceled by the University's recent protocols in response to COVID-19, and will be resecheduled for Fall 2020 or Spring 2021.

“Can Marriage Save the Race? Ideas about African-American Marriage from W. E. B. Du Bois to Our Own Times”

The state of African-American families, of marital status in particular, has been subject to debates going back centuries. Slavery was ground zero for explaining black familial impairments and has figured prominently in popular and scholarly assessments ever since. W. E. B. Du Bois was the first scholar to study the family and make this claim. This talk will take a critical look at his influential work and examine some of the contemporary debates about what marriage can and cannot do to redress the ills of racial oppression.

Tera W. Hunter is the Edwards Professor of American History and Professor of African-American Studies, a specialist in the 19th and 20th centuries. Her research focuses on gender, race, labor, and Southern histories.

This is the final event in the Race, Gender, and Representation in the Africana World series, sponsored by the following units: Department of Africana Studies, Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx Studies Initiative, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, Department of History, Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Race and Social Problems, Humanities Center, World History Center.

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm: Pre-event Reception, Global Hub, Posvar Hall, 1st Floor

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm: Distinguished Lecture