The public is invited to a book talk by Joseph Bagley, author of The Politics of White Rights: Race, Justice, and Integrating Alabama’s Schools, on Tuesday, January 29 at 4 p.m. at the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities at Pebble Hill.

In The Politics of White Rights, Joseph Bagley recounts the history of school desegregation litigation in Alabama, focusing on the malleability and durability of white resistance. He argues that the litigious battles of 1954–73 taught Alabama’s segregationists how to fashion a more subtle defense of white privilege, placing them in the vanguard of a new conservatism oriented toward the Sunbelt, not the South.

Joseph Bagley is Assistant Professor of History at Georgia State University, Perimeter College in Atlanta. A native of Alabama, he holds a PhD in history from Georgia State and an MA and BA from Auburn. The Politics of White Rights, a reshaping of his doctoral thesis, is Dr. Bagley’s first historical monograph. He teaches U.S. and world history at GSU, and his research interests include twentieth century American politics and law, civil rights, and education.

The event is free, open to the public, and will be followed by refreshments. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities at Pebble Hill is located at 101 S. Debardeleben Street, Auburn. For more information on the program, call 334-844-4903 or visit www.auburn.edu/cah.