Untold history of the White House is focus of AAS Second Annual Colloquium

Award-winning journalist, activist and scholar Clarence Lusane, author of “The Black History of the White House” (City Lights Publishers, 2011), will present a discussion of the book from 4-6 p.m. Thursday, March 22, in Syracuse University’s E.S. Bird Library, Room 114. The event is free and open to the public and is presented by the Department of African American Studies in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences. Parking is available in SU’s pay lots.

Lusane is an associate professor in American University’s School of International Service and a national columnist for the Black Voices syndicated news network. His research interests include international race politics, human rights and electoral politics. “The Black History of the White House” presents a comprehensive history of the executive mansion from an African American perspective, illuminating the central role it has played in advancing, thwarting or simply ignoring efforts to achieve equal rights for all. Juxtaposing significant events in White House history with the ongoing struggle for civil rights, Lusane argues that the White House has always been a prism through which to view the social struggles and progress of black Americans.

Lusane has spent more than 30 years writing about and being active in national and international anti-racism politics, globalization, U.S. foreign policy, human rights and social issues. He spent two years in London conducting research on racism and human rights in Europe and working with European institutions and NGOs. He has received numerous recognitions for his work, including the prestigious British Council Atlantic Fellowship in Public Policy, the Larry Neal Writers’ Competition Grand Prize for Art Criticism (1993) and the Project Censored Investigative Reporting Award (1983).

Lusane is the author of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, book chapters, scholarly journal articles and seven books, including “Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice: Foreign Policy, Race, and the New American Century” (Praeger, 2006), “Hitler’s Black Victims: The Experiences of Afro-Germans, Africans, Afro-Europeans and African Americans during the Nazi Era” (Rotledge, 2002), and “Race in the Global Era: African Americans at the Millennium” (South End Press, 1997).

He holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree in political science from Howard University and a bachelor’s degree in communications from Wayne State University.