Welcome to the Africana Research Center

Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History at University of Pennsylvania will present our Barbara Jordan lecture.

"Achieving Justice in the Obama Era?"

Barbara Jordan eloquently expressed her faith  in the Constitution at another troubled time in our history during the Watergate hearings. Today the Constitution and our system of government based on  laws is under extreme stress again. Everything from conflicts over immigration, voter fraud or suppression, the overall division of power between the federal government and the states proceed in an atmosphere of poisonous partisanship. Whether economic policy is legal or wise when economic problems persist raises other questions. Poverty, increasing economic inequality and racism in a supposedly post-racial society all present their challenges.  Under these circumstances how fares the justice agenda in the Obama Era?