This is Democracy — Episode 302: Freedom Season 1963

This week, Zachary hosts a conversation with Jeremi and Dr. Peniel Joseph about his new book, Freedom Season, which describes the pivotal significance of 1963 in the Civil Rights Movement, highlighting key events such as the Birmingham protests, the March on Washington, the Birmingham church bombing, and the assassination of JFK. This week, instead of the usual poem, we set the scene with an audio excerpt of Martin Luther King Jr. reading from his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Peniel Joseph holds a joint professorship appointment at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the History Department in the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. He is also the founding director of the LBJ School’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. His career focus has been on “Black Power Studies,” which encompasses interdisciplinary fields such as Africana studies, law and society, women’s and ethnic studies, and political science. Prior to joining the UT faculty, Joseph was a professor at Tufts University, where he founded the school’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy to promote engaged research and scholarship focused on the ways issues of race and democracy affect people’s lives. In addition to being a frequent commentator on issues of race, democracy and civil rights, Joseph wrote the award-winning books “Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America, “Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama," and “Stokely: A Life" as well as “The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era” and “Neighborhood Rebels: Black Power at the Local Level.”" His most recent book is "Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed America's Civil Rights Revolution."