Alumna Carol Anderson honored with Freedom Summer of ’64 Award
Esteemed author, historian, educator recognized for work with civil rights and social justice
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Published
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ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University alumna Carol Anderson ’81, M.A. ’82 received the university's Freedom Summer of '64 Award on Sept. 20 at Hall Auditorium. (photo by Jeff Sabo)
Alumna Carol Anderson honored with Freedom Summer of ’64 Award
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Published
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Carol Anderson ’81, M.A. ’82 returned home on Friday, Sept. 20.
Standing on the stage of Hall Auditorium to accept the 2024 Freedom Summer of ’64 Award, the author, historian, and educator told the story of her constitutional law class at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University with professor Alan Engel. Anderson became passionate during a discussion about the topic of a Supreme Court case and was asked by Engel to stay after class.
Convinced she might be in some form of trouble, Anderson was surprised when Engel instead asked, ‘Have you ever thought about going to graduate school?’ Anderson replied she had, but had “no idea how to get there.”
“He said, ‘Come with me.’ That was the key element in my journey to this award, professor Alan Engel, who saw within me this love for justice, this fire for equality, this fire for a free and just society,” Anderson said. “He saw it in me, and he helped guide me on that path. I owe ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú so much for this.”
“It feels so wonderful to be back home again. It feels like the culmination of a long, long journey.”
Anderson received the award for her accomplishments and achievements in a lifelong pursuit of civil rights, social justice, and inclusive excellence.
Currently the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of African American Studies at Emory University, Anderson’s written works include “Bourgeois Radicals, The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1969” and “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of our Racial Divide,” a New York Times bestseller that was also the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism winner.
Along with several awards for her writing, Anderson has been elected into the Society of American Historians, named a W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and selected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2023, Anderson earned the Ella Baker Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hurston/Wright Foundation.
“Your work has been instrumental in deepening our understanding of racial inequality and how it intersects with policy making,” ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú President Gregory Crawford said during the ceremony. “Your research illuminates the strength and determination of those impacted by unjust laws. And as an educator, you empower the next generation of changemakers who will build upon your legacy and drive lasting progress.”
The Freedom Summer of ’64 Award is named for the site at Western College for Women, now ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú’s Western campus, where 800 young Americans trained to register Black voters in the South. Jacqueline Johnson, university archivist, spoke during the event on the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer.
University Ambassador Dr. Renate Crawford was also among those giving remarks and quoted activist, journalist, and educator Ida B. Wells in praising Anderson: “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
“Carol, through your tireless work, you have done just that, shining a light on injustice and showing us the path forward,” Renate Crawford said.
Anderson and Kelly Banks ’81, friends since their first year at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú, held a 20-minute fireside chat during the ceremony, where the conversation ranged from the roots of Anderson’s passions to her work with voting rights.
“This is Carol’s life work, and it is some heavy stuff,” said Banks, who retired as the vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. “But if you read her books and listen to her talk for any length of time, the thing that comes through which has amazed me in the 40-some odd years we’ve been friends is that she is optimistic, and hopeful, and loving, and kind, and graceful in a world that has rarely showed her those gifts.”
The first Freedom Summer of ’64 Award was given in 2018 to U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Past recipients include the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins WC ’74, Joe Madison, Wayne ’58 and Teresa Embry ’60, Reginald Hudlin, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Wil Haygood ’76, and the Western College Alumnae Association.
“This award ceremony is something that is very special to ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú and is very special to me,” President Crawford said. “It is really inspirational in so many different ways.”
Standing on the stage of Hall Auditorium to accept the 2024 Freedom Summer of ’64 Award, the author, historian, and educator told the story of her constitutional law class at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University with professor Alan Engel. Anderson became passionate during a discussion about the topic of a Supreme Court case and was asked by Engel to stay after class.
Convinced she might be in some form of trouble, Anderson was surprised when Engel instead asked, ‘Have you ever thought about going to graduate school?’ Anderson replied she had, but had “no idea how to get there.”
“He said, ‘Come with me.’ That was the key element in my journey to this award, professor Alan Engel, who saw within me this love for justice, this fire for equality, this fire for a free and just society,” Anderson said. “He saw it in me, and he helped guide me on that path. I owe ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú so much for this.”
“It feels so wonderful to be back home again. It feels like the culmination of a long, long journey.”
Anderson received the award for her accomplishments and achievements in a lifelong pursuit of civil rights, social justice, and inclusive excellence.
Currently the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of African American Studies at Emory University, Anderson’s written works include “Bourgeois Radicals, The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1969” and “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of our Racial Divide,” a New York Times bestseller that was also the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism winner.
Along with several awards for her writing, Anderson has been elected into the Society of American Historians, named a W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and selected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2023, Anderson earned the Ella Baker Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hurston/Wright Foundation.
“Your work has been instrumental in deepening our understanding of racial inequality and how it intersects with policy making,” ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú President Gregory Crawford said during the ceremony. “Your research illuminates the strength and determination of those impacted by unjust laws. And as an educator, you empower the next generation of changemakers who will build upon your legacy and drive lasting progress.”
The Freedom Summer of ’64 Award is named for the site at Western College for Women, now ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú’s Western campus, where 800 young Americans trained to register Black voters in the South. Jacqueline Johnson, university archivist, spoke during the event on the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer.
University Ambassador Dr. Renate Crawford was also among those giving remarks and quoted activist, journalist, and educator Ida B. Wells in praising Anderson: “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
“Carol, through your tireless work, you have done just that, shining a light on injustice and showing us the path forward,” Renate Crawford said.
Anderson and Kelly Banks ’81, friends since their first year at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú, held a 20-minute fireside chat during the ceremony, where the conversation ranged from the roots of Anderson’s passions to her work with voting rights.
“This is Carol’s life work, and it is some heavy stuff,” said Banks, who retired as the vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. “But if you read her books and listen to her talk for any length of time, the thing that comes through which has amazed me in the 40-some odd years we’ve been friends is that she is optimistic, and hopeful, and loving, and kind, and graceful in a world that has rarely showed her those gifts.”
The first Freedom Summer of ’64 Award was given in 2018 to U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Past recipients include the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins WC ’74, Joe Madison, Wayne ’58 and Teresa Embry ’60, Reginald Hudlin, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Wil Haygood ’76, and the Western College Alumnae Association.
“This award ceremony is something that is very special to ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú and is very special to me,” President Crawford said. “It is really inspirational in so many different ways.”