Race Relations in US

Sixth Formers studying Race Relations in the USA as part of their AS History course attended a sixth from conference in Manchester on March 11th. The course was delivered by Tony Badger of Cambridge University, arguably the leading British authority on US history at the moment and Brian Ward, the Professor of American History at the University of Northumbria. Gamely ignoring a couple of IT gremlins, Professor Badger delivered two very well-judged and balanced lectures on the 1957 Crises at Little Rock and on the career of Martin Luther King Jr through the yes of his contemporaries. Professor Badger focused on the electrifying effect of the student sit-ins and freedom rides across the south in the early 1960s and opened up the debate on the role of women in the civil rights movement, concluding that they did much more than is often appreciated and blasting out Aretha singing R-E-S-P-E-C-T at the end to drive home the message and make sure the audience was still awake!