Speaker: Dr. Erik S. McDuffie, Associate Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
When: Thursday, March 27th, 5:00pm
Where: Wick Alumni Center, 1520 R St., Lincoln, NE 68588
Drawing from his new book The Second Battle for Africa: Garveyism, the US Heartland, and Global Black Freedom (Duke, 2024), our guest Dr. Erik S. McDuffie will discuss with UNL historians Dr. Jeannette Eileen Jones & Dr. Patrick Jones the significance of Omaha in shaping the life and legacy of the preeminent Black nationalist spokesperson Malcolm X on the eve of the centenary of his birth in Nebraska’s largest city.
Dr. McDuffie will discuss the diasporic journeys of Malcolm X's parents, Louise and Earl Little, and how their grassroots involvement in Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), together with their encounters in Omaha, laid the foundations for Malcolm’s Black radical internationalism. Through tracing his early years, the discussion will highlight the underappreciated importance of Omaha and, more broadly, the Midwest in advancing global Black freedom, then and now.
This event is free and open to the public!!