In DARK DAYS, BRIGHT NIGHTS: From Black Power to Barack Obama historian Peniel E. Joseph attempts to tests the pat assumptions that many people have about the Black Power and civil rights movements. While many people point to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as the culmination or end of the era, Joseph counters that it was only the beginning, and that it opened the doors for increased activism, fueled by radical democratic impulses that had previously been held in check.

Join co-sponsors the Institute for Policy Studies, Teaching for Change, Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, The Root, Split This Rock and Busboys and Poets for a lively discussion and book signing with Joseph about race in America, and the successes, failures, and stalemates of black leaders in the past fifty years.

Peniel E. Joseph is professor of history at Tufts University and the author of Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Ford Foundation, and his work has appeared in Souls, New Formations, and The Black Scholar. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.