KU News Release

Tuttle Lecture to feature civil rights historian

LAWRENCE — The Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas will host a lecture in honor of the forthcoming retirement of a longtime KU history and American studies professor.

Bill Tuttle has taught KU students about recent American history, race relations and the social movements of the 1960s for more than four decades. The first Tuttle Lecture will be delivered by Leon Litwack, a retired professor from the University of California-Berkeley. The lecture, titled “Fight the Power,” will take place at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 10, at the Dole Institute.

“Bill Tuttle is an outstanding scholar and teacher, and one of the major reasons I came to KU,” said Jonathan Earle, interim director of the Dole Institute. “He’s a historian’s historian and seems to know every interesting person in our profession. I’m not surprised Professor Litwack agreed to honor him by delivering the inaugural Tuttle Lecture.”

Tuttle’s research interests include the civil rights movement and the social history of race in America. He is the author of several books, including “Daddy’s Gone to War: The Second World War in the Lives of America’s Children” (1993) and “Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919” (Second Ed., 1996) and co-author of “A People & A Nation” (Sixth Ed., 2001).

“Generations of KU students and Lawrence residents learned about America’s past from Professor Tuttle,” Earle said. “This is a chance for them to see another giant in the field honor their teacher.”

Litwack specializes in the history of race in America and has written numerous books on the subject, including “Historians and Race: Autobiography and the Writing of History” (1996) and “Lynching Photography in America” (2000). He has also been a consultant for many historical films such as “Ethnic Notions” and “Freedom on My Mind.”

The Tuttle Lecture is co-sponsored by KU’s American Studies Program, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Hall Center for the Humanities, Office of Research and Graduate Studies, Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Provost and Dole Institute of Politics.

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