The Prairie Landscape

People Involved: Brown v. Board 50 Years Later: Conversations on Integration, Race, and the Courts

Road Scholar Speaker Roster

Larry T. Balsamo, Professor of History at Western Illinois University

  • Murder by Persons Well-Known: Jim Crow, Racial Etiquette, and the Lynching of Emmett Till
  • Tear Gas and Magnolias: President Kennedy, Governor Ross Robert Barnett, James Meredith, and Integration at "Ole Miss"

Vernon Burton, Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Where and How Brown v. Board Began: Heroes of Clarendon County, South Carolina and Historical Memory
  • The Voting Rights Act: It Must Not Have Been Humid Enough in the North
  • Benjamin E. Mays: Godfather to the Civil Rights Movement and Mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Janis F. Kearney, writer, lecturer, and formerly President Bill Clinton's Personal Diarist

  • Daisy L. Gatson Bates: Arkansas' Unsung Hero
  • The Clinton Presidency: An African-American Perspective

Sylvia Hood Washington, Professor at DePaul and Northwestern Universities

  • Packing Them In
  • Urban Conservation Movement
  • Mrs. Block Beautiful

Stan West, author, journalist, filmmaker, and Professor of English at Columbia College Chicago

  • A Biographic Journey Through Brown v. Board and Beyond
  • A Humanist Looks at Integration

Co-organizers

  • The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago
  • The Chicago Historical Society
  • The HistoryMakers
  • The Public Square


Partners

  • American Bar Association, Division for Public Education
  • Chicago Public Library
  • The Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago
  • The DuSable Museum of African American History
  • The Gene Siskel Film Center
  • Harris Bank
  • Museum of Contemporary Art
  • Newberry Library
  • Northwestern University
  • Steering Committee


Steering Committee

  • Professor Robert Bruno
    Institute of Labor & Industrial Relations
    Chicago Labor Education Program
    University of Illinois at Chicago
  • Lonnie Bunch
    President
    Chicago Historical Society
  • Professor Cathy Cohen
    Department of Political Science
    Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture
    University of Chicago
  • Professor Cecilia Stiles Cornell
    Department of History
    University of Illinois at Springfield
  • The Honorable Joan B. Gottschall
    U.S. District Court Judge
    Northern District of Illinois
  • Terri Johnson
    Executive Director
    Human Relations Foundation
  • Professor Waldo Johnson, Jr.
    School of Social Service Administration
    University of Chicago
  • Kelly Keogh
    Social Studies Teacher
    Normal Community High School
  • James Landman
    Associate Director
    ABA Division for Public Education
  • Veronda Pitchford
    Member and Special Services Librarian
    Chicago Multitype Library System
  • Professor Barbara Ransby
    Executive Director of the Public Square
    Department of History & the Department of African-American Studies
    University of Illinois at Chicago
  • Julieanna Richardson
    Founder & Executive Director
    The HistoryMakers
  • Bonnie Smith-Skripps
    Dean, College of Education and Human Services
    Western Illinois University
  • Nikki Stein
    Executive Director
    Polk Bros. Foundation
  • Arthur Sussman
    Vice President and Secretary
    MacArthur Foundation
  • Maria Valdez
    Regional Counsel
    Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF)
  • Connie Van Brunt
    Executive Director
    Community Youth Creative Learning Experience (CYCLE)

Carbondale Committee

  • Professor Peter Alexander
    Dean
    School of Law
    Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
  • Professor Lori Crenshaw Bryant
    School of Law
    Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
  • Professor David Cochran
    Department of History
    John A. Logan College
  • Pepper Holder
    Radio Host
    WDBX Carbondale Community Radio
  • Anna Jackson
    Department of English
    Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
  • Professor Robbie Lieberman
    Department of History
    Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
  • Paul Matalonis
    Attorney, Land of Lincoln Legal Aid
    WDBX Carbondale Community Radio
  • Corene McDaniel
    Carbondale City Council
    Board Member, African-American Museum of Southern Illinois
  • Professor Mark A. Schneider
    Department of Sociology
    Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
    Member, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern Illinois
  • Professor Pamela A. Smoot
    Department of Black American Studies
    Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

Macomb Committee

  • Professor Larry T. Balsamo
    Chair, Department of History
    Western Illinois University
  • Professor Martin D. DuPuis
    Department of Political Science
    Director, Honors College
    Western Illinois University
  • Professor Jacqueline A. McLeod
    Department of History
    Western Illinois University
  • Julie Murphy
    Office of the Dean
    College of Education and Human Services
    Western Illinois University
  • Bonnie Smith-Skripps
    Dean, College of Education and Human Services
    Western Illinois University
    Central Illinois Regional Planning Committee

Central Illinois Regional Planning Committee

  • Professor Robert Grindy President
    Department of English
    Richland Community College
  • Professor Cecilia Stiles Cornell
    Vice President
    Department of History
    University of Illinois at Springfield
  • Kim Bauer Secretary/Treasurer
    Lincoln Curator
    Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
  • Nancy Huntley
    Director
    Lincoln Library
  • Professor Jean I. Ladendorf
    Department of English and Humanities
    Lincoln Land Community College
  • Barbara Mason
    Curator, Pearson Museum
    Southern Illinois School of Medicine
  • Anne Marie Fuhrig
    Principal Education Consultant
    Illinois State Board of Education
  • Nancy McKinney
    Coordinator
    Odyssey Project, Springfield
  • R. Lee Slider
    Cultural Interpreter
    Macon County Conservation District
  • Professor Stephen Godek
    Department of Political Science
    Illinois College
  • David Joens
    Policy Analyst
    Illinois Office of the Secretary of State
  • Professor Robert Kunath
    Chair, Department of History
    Illinois College
  • Laurie Hughes
    Department of English
    Richland Community College


FUNDERS

Ariel Mutual Funds; Bank One; Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott; The Boeing Company; Chicago Tribune Company; Robert A. Clifford and Clifford Law Offices, P.C.; Michael W. Coffield & Associates P.C.; Cooney & Conway; Corboy & Demetrio, P.C.; Duo Consulting; Eimer Stahl Klevorn & Solberg LLP; Exelon Corporation; Greene and Letts; Donald Hubert, Hubert & Fowler; Jenner & Block LLP; Jovon Broadcasting Corporation; LaSalle Bank; Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP; Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc.; Polk Bros. Foundation; Power, Rogers & Smith P.C.; The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; Sara Lee Corporation; Sears, Roebuck and Co.; Seyfarth Shaw LLP; Shefsky & Froelich Ltd.; Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP; Nikki and Fred Stein; Woods Fund of Chicago