A Conversation with Dr. June Manning Thomas

902 Barnwell Street,Columbia SC 29201

22 June, 2022

Description

The Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina Press present a conversation with Dr. June Manning Thomas about her new book, Struggling to Learn: An Intimate History of School Desegregation in South Carolina. In 1964 June Manning Thomas became one of the first 13 Black students to desegregate Orangeburg High School in South Carolina. This extraordinary experience shaped her life and spurred her passion to understand racism and its effect on education in the Black community. In Struggling to Learn, Thomas details the courage she and her classmates displayed during desegregation, the ways Black communities have fought to gain access to K–12 and higher education, and the social and political tools Black southerners used to combat segregation and claim belonging. Combining meticulous research and poignant personal narrative, Struggling to Learn reveals the long and painful struggle toward equal education in the Jim Crow South. Thomas articulates why Black communities persisted in their pursuit of school desegregation despite the hostility and unfulfilled promises along the way. This story of resilience highlights the tenacity and determination of a people fighting to ensure a better life for themselves and their children. June Manning Thomas is the Mary Frances Berry Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Planned Progress: Lessons from Shoghi Effendi and Redevelopment and Race: Planning a Finer City in Postwar Detroit, and co-editor of The City After Abandonment. Masks are strongly encouraged. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event. Refreshments will be provided.