May 23, 2007 Francille Rusan Wilson To Discuss Black Labor Historians on June 13

Who were the major black labor historians and how did they come to produce groundbreaking work in economic and labor studies? In a talk at the Library of Congress, Francille Rusan Wilson will explore the lives and work of black scholars whose imprint on labor history and social science has earned them a lasting place in African-American intellectual heritage. A nationally known historian, Wilson will discuss and sign her book, “The Segregated Scholars: Black Social Scientists and the Creation of Black Labor Studies, 1890-1950,” at noon on Wednesday, June 13, in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave., S.E., Washington, D.C. The event, sponsored by the Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Division, is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required. Wilson’s book, published in 2006 by the University of Virginia Press, examines three generations of scholar activists. Robin D. G. Kelley of Columbia University, author of “Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination,” said, “Every page of ‘The Segregated Scholars’ either brings new insight into the ‘turn’ to the study of the black working class during the early 20th century or brings to our attention key black intellectuals whose contributions have gone unnoticed, the latter almost entirely black women social scientists.” Wilson is an associate professor in the African American Studies Department and affiliate associate professor in the departments of American Studies and Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland. She is an intellectual and labor historian whose research examines the intersections between black labor movements, black social scientists and black women's history during the Jim Crow era. She serves on the board of the Labor and Working Class History Association. Wilson earned a master’s and a doctorate in history from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s in teaching from Harvard University and a bachelor’s from Wellesley College. Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, with more than 134 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. As the world’s largest repository of knowledge and creativity, the Library is a symbol of democracy and the principles on which this nation was founded. Today the Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site in its 21 reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning Web site at www.loc.gov".