Visiting scholar to address Black politics, education and inequality in Chicago

Event on March 1 is part of the Wyman Visiting Professorship Series

Feb. 22, 2023 - Changes in public education prompted by desegregation of schools have resulted in significant alterations, such as numerous experimental education models and teachers’ organizing efforts, a Chicago-based author, professor and school board member says. 

However, significant inequities between students of color and their white counterparts remain, said Elizabeth Todd-Breland, author of “A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago Since the 1960s” and associate professor of history and Black Studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago. 

Todd-Breland will discuss those topics and others as part of the Walker D. and Helen Bryant Wyman Visiting Professorship Series event at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 1, at the university’s North Hall Auditorium. Todd-Breland will answer questions from students from 1-2 p.m. that same day in the auditorium. 

The talk will include transformations in Black politics, shifts in education organizing, and racial politics of education reform from the 1960s to the current time. Her address describes community-based efforts of Black students, teachers, parents and activists as initial support for desegregating schools led to educational changes.        

Her presentation centers on Chicago to tell a national story connecting the history of educational happenings in the wake of desegregation with what she calls “the more recent corporate reorganization of the public sphere and ongoing inequities.”

Ryan Fischer, assistant history professor at UW-River Falls and a member of the Wyman Events Committee, said having Todd-Breland on campus is timely, given current discussion of racial inequities and education.

Her address “will be a great event for anyone in the River Falls community interested in education reform, community activism, and struggles against inequality,” Fischer said. “Elizabeth Todd-Breland is a top scholar on the history of education in the United States, and she's a member of the Chicago Board of Education, so I think she'll have a lot of different and fascinating perspectives on these issues.” 

Todd-Breland’s research and teaching focus on U.S. urban history, African American history, and the history of education. She also organizes professional development workshops and develops curricula about African American history, urban education and racial justice.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, email john.ryan.fischer@uwrf.edu

The Wyman Speaker Series started at UW-River Falls in 2015 after a donation from the Wyman family. Series events occur once each semester.