African American History Month Special Edition: The Civil Rights Movement in the Shadow of MLK

We spoke with one of the nation’s leading scholars on the American civil rights movement to learn about the immediate impact that the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. had on the struggle for freedom. We also discuss MLK’s legacy and its meaning in 2015. David Chappell is a professor at the University of Oklahoma and the author of, “Waking From the Dream: The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.” That’s the topic for this edition of CONTEXT.

David Chappell is the Rothbaum Professor of Modern American History at the University of Oklahoma where he specializes in the study of the American civil rights struggle. His books include “A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow” and “Inside Agitators: White Southerners in the Civil Rights Movement.” Supported by a year-long grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, his newest book is, “Waking from the Dream: The Civil Rights Movement in the Shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.”  “Inside Agitators” received a Gustavus Myers Award for Outstanding Book on Human Rights in North America and the Atlantic Monthly described “A Stone of Hope” as “one of the three or four most important books on civil rights.” In addition to the NEH, his work has received support from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. He offers courses on the history of the civil rights struggle, liberalism and race, religion, immigration and ethnicity, and cultural and intellectual history. Professor Chappell received his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester.