Ida B. Wells Symposia | Life & Work of Louis Austin

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NCCU Professors, Dr. Jerry Gershenhorn, Brett Chambers, and Dr. Charmaine McKissick-Melton join veteran Triangle journalist Cash Michaels to discuss the life and work of North Carolina editor and publisher Louis Austin, whose Carolina Times newspaper was the most important voice for Black North Carolinians at the height of Jim Crow segregation. Moderated by James Williams.

This important examiniation of the African American press during Jim Crow the fourth offering in a series of six October 2020 virtual events honoring pioneering African American Journalist Ida B. Wells.

To celebrate the life and work of Black journalist, advocate and educator Ida B. Wells, the Center for the Study of the American South joins the Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition and the Chapel Hill-Carborro NAACP in hosting six virtual events throughout the month of October 2020. Wells-Barnett used the power of words to stop racial violence. She risked her life to shine “the light of truth” on lynching at its height in the U.S. between the 1890s and 1930s.

Our symposia collection of panel discussions, lectures, educator workshops, and performances encourages the continued work of investigative journalism and increasing and retaining reporters and editors of color.