TAMIU Lecturer Explores Civil Rights in US, South Africa March 28

An exploration of civil rights in two countries will be shared in a lecture Friday, Mar. 28 at 12:30 p.m. in Texas A&M International University’s Student Center 236.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Derek Catsam, assistant professor of history at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and a renowned author, will present We Will Not Ride: Civil Rights in the United States and South Africa, discussing the resistance movement in America and South Africa.  Catsam’s presentation is part of TAMIU’s Reading the Globe campaign sponsored by the Office of University College and made possible with funding support from Humanities Texas.

After receiving his B.A. from Williams College, his M.A. from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, and his Ph.D. from Ohio University, Catsam spent a year at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa as a Rotary Fellow. 

Catsam has written about politics, race and social movements in America and Africa and will focus on the 1940s and 50s when both countries were actively fighting white supremacy.

Catsam is the author of Bleeding Red: A Red Sox Fan’s Diary (2005) and Freedom's Main Line: The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides (2011). He is also a member of the editorial boards of Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies and of the Journal of Social and Ecological Boundaries.

His lecture also resonates with this year’s TAMIU student shared reading The Other Wes Moore. Written by Wesley Moore, the book tells the story of two boys who share the same name, upbringing, and neighborhood, but through influences and choices, have completely different outcomes. One becomes a White House Fellow to then-Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice and the other a convicted felon serving a life sentence. 

University College will also feature a photo exhibit, Jasper, Texas: The Healing of a Community in Crisis by Sarah Wilson in association with Humanities Texas Mar. 17 – Apr. 25 in the north foyer of the State Senator Judith Zaffirini Student Success Center (ZSC).

The exhibit, also open to the public, focuses on the small town of Jasper years after the hate crime and death of James Bryd, Jr. became a national story in 1998. 

For more information about the speaker or exhibit, contact Dr. Hayley Kazen at hkazen@tamiu.edu or 326.2805, click on www.tamiu.edu/uc/ or visit offices in ZSC 233.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu