Faculty, staff, students and community members are invited to join us on Wednesday, April 11, 2018, for a discussion of Dr. Leonard N. Moore’s new book, “The Defeat of Black Power: Civil Rights and the National Black Political Convention of 1972.”  The interactive discussion will take place from 12-1 p.m. in the Main Building, Room 212. Lunch will be served to those attending. This event is free and open to the public.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP by emailing ovp-ddce@utexas.edu or calling 512-232-4621. For those off campus, public parking is available in the San Antonio Garage.

Moore is the interim Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement and holds the George W. Littlefield Professorship in American History.

Book Synopsis

For three days in 1972, 8,000 American civil rights activists and Black Power leaders gathered at the National Black Political Convention in Gary Indiana, hoping to end a years-long feud between integrationists and separatists. What followed, however, effectively crippled the Black Power movement and fundamentally altered the political strategy of civil rights proponents.  After the convention, the influence of the Black Power movement declined, its leaders effectively barred access to the levers of social and political power.