If you find yourself near Albany, Georgia this Thursday, stop by the Albany Civil Rights Institute!

ALBANY, GA - June 6, 2011 - On Thursday, June 23, the Albany Civil Rights Institute (ACRI) will hold its sixth Monthly Community Night in 2011 with civil rights historian Charles W. McKinney, Jr., speaking on the history of the civil rights movement in the eastern North Carolina community of Wilson. The talk will be based on Dr. McKinney's book, Greater Freedom: The Evolution of the Civil Rights Struggle in Wilson, North Carolina.  Past monthly community nights have explored the civil rights movement in Albany, Cuthbert, Shellman, and Baker County, Georgia; Lowndes County, Montgomery, and Birmingham, Alabama; and Chicago, New York, and other northern cities.  This community night will take us to North Carolina and the Upper South.   

Charles W. McKinney, an associate professor of history at Rhodes College in Memphis, earned a B.A. degree in history from Morehouse College, a Master's and Ph.D. degree in history from Duke University. After graduating Morehouse and before entering Duke, he taught third grade at Ralph J. Bunch Elementary School in Compton, California.  He also directed the Summer Youth Initiative in the Durham Service Corps and was Partnership Manager in AmeriCorps/North Carolina Public Allies.  McKinney was a research associate and African and African American Studies Program Coordinator at Duke University and has taught at Rhodes College since 2005.

In his book, Dr. McKinney argues that African Americans in Wilson created an "expansive notion of freedom that influenced every aspect of life in the region and directly confronted" North Carolina's reputation for moderation.  McKinney's book has received high praise from civil rights historians.  Gerald Horne notes that "Historians have longed for . . . detailed local studies of the epochal Civil Rights Movement.  Now with . . . this beautifully written, adroitly researched and brilliantly argued book, their prayers have been answered resoundingly."  Civil rights historian Timothy B. Tyson proclaims that "The . . . triumphalist tale that begins with a weary seamstress in Montgomery and ends on a bloody balcony in Memphis takes a telling blow in Charles McKinney's Greater Freedom. . . .  McKinney's deep insights into the local dynamics of African American freedom politics defy conventional understandings of 'civil rights' and 'Black Power.'"  ACRI Executive Director Lee W. Formwalt concludes that "McKinney's portrait of civil rights in Wilson, NC, adds one more revealing piece to that complex puzzle we call the modern civil rights movement."

The June 23d Monthly Community Night will be at 7:30 p.m., at ACRI, 326 Whitney Avenue, Albany.  The event is free and open to the public.  It will be followed by a book signing.  Copies of Dr. McKinney's book, Greater Freedom: The Evolution of the Civil Rights Struggle in Wilson, North Carolina, are now available for $35.00 (tax included) in the ACRI gift shop. 

 The next ACRI Monthly Community Night on Thursday, July 21 will feature the film The Intolerable Burden: Segregation, Desegregation, Resegregation, based in part on Constance Curry's book Silver Rights.  Presentation and discussion will be led by Curry, a civil rights activist and writer, and Benetta M. Standly of the ACLU Foundation of Florida.

Hilton Garden Inn Albany and Sam's Club are the sponsors of ACRI Monthly Community Nights.  For more information, contact ACRI Executive Director Lee W. Formwalt at (229) 432-1698 or lee@acrmm.org