Civil Rights author and historian speaks at AIC
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| Fred and Jason Sokol |
SPRINGFIELD--Historian and author Jason Sokol provided a unique prospective on the Civil Rights Era when he spoke at American International College, Tuesday, March 18. Nearly 80 students, faculty and community members gathered in the Karen Sprague Cultural Arts Center for the event. Sokol, a Springfield native, discussed research and writings compiled for his book, "There Goes My Everything: White southerners in the age of civil rights."
Sokol was introduced by his father, Fred Sokol, director of theater arts at AIC.
Sokol's book traces the origins of the Civil Rights struggle from World War II to the beginnings of change in the 1950s and tensions of the 1960s and 1970s. Sokol presents an unbiased and sensitive perspective on what life was like for white southerners whose world became unrecognizable to them when strongholds of white rule were overwhelmed by rising black political power.
"There Goes My Everything" was selected as one of the top 10 books of 2006 by the Washington Post book World, and Sokol was recently named one of America's "Top Young Historians" by the History News Network.
"When I talked before southern audiences about my book, many inquired why someone with my background would write on White southerners. I explained that I had a deep interest in how race shaped politics and society, and that the history of the South was so rich in this area. I felt a deep connection to these southern stories," Sokol said
"I also knew that they were national stories, not simply regional ones. And in the back of my mind, I always wanted to learn more about race and politics in the North to understand my own roots, as well," he said.
Sokol graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Oberline College in 1999 with majors in history and philosophy. He received a Ph.D. in American History from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006, served as a non-resident Fellow at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute, Harvard University and is currently a Mellon Post Doctoral Fellow at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
From 1997 to 2000, he worked variously for the Springfield Union-News, the New Haven Advocate, and The Nation. Jason's writings on American history, race, and politics have appeared in those publications, among several others.
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