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EVENTS

UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS, WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW

IN PERSON EVENT

February 11, 2025, 3-4:30pm ET

Philip Pro Lecture in Legal History at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND

IN PERSON EVENT

February 24, 2025 

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The Ryland Lecture at the University of Richmond. More details to come. 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

IN PERSON EVENT

March 31, 2025 

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UCLA Legal History workshop. More details to come.   

UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI 

VIRTUAL EVENT

September 30, 2025 

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Lecture at University of Helsinki Legal History Series. More details to come.   

PAST EVENTS

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY HISTORY DEPARTMENT

IN PERSON EVENT

October 2, 2024  

Lecture and pro-seminar.  

CENTRE FOR GLOBAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA

VIRTUAL EVENT 

September 16, 2024 

Book discussion of “Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights.”  

NINTH CIRCUIT JUDICIAL CONFERENCE

IN PERSON PANEL 

June 23, 2024  

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Panel, "Reflections on the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act," at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. Watch the video here

CITY OF WEST HOLLYWOOD 

IN PERSON EVENT 

June 18, 2024, 6:30pm PT

West Hollywood City Council Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Discussion of "Before the Movement" followed by Q&A and book signing at the City of West Hollywood's Juneteenth commemoration.  

BATON FOUNDATION

VIRTUAL EVENT

May 5, 2024, 3-4:30pm ET

Book conversation with Dr. Fred Knight, Morehouse College.

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, HISTORY DEPARTMENT

IN PERSON EVENT

April 23, 2024, 12-2pm ET

Book discussion of “Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights,” at The Black World Seminar, History Department, Johns Hopkins University. 

COMMONWEALTH CLUB 

IN PERSON & VIRTUAL EVENT

February 22, 2024, 5:30-6:30pm PT

110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 

Join us as Dylan Penningroth, a MacArthur "genius grant" recipient, challenges the accepted understandings of Black history and puts Black people back at the center of their story in his book “Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights.”  He will be in conversation with LaDoris Cordell (author of "Her Honor: My Life on the Bench . . . What Works, What’s Broken, and How to Change It")

AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION 

VIRTUAL EVENT: WEBINAR

February 26, 2024, 11am PT/2pm ET

Please join the ABF Fellows for a National Webinar presentation by ABF Affiliated Research Professor, Dylan C. Penningroth. In this webinar, acclaimed historian Dylan C. Penningroth will present from his new book, “Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights.” 

SCHOMBURG CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN BLACK CULTURE, NYPL

VIRTUAL EVENT: CONVERSATIONS IN BLACK FREEDOM STUDIES

February 1, 2024, 6:30-8:00 pm ET

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in the landmark case Brown vs. Board of Education. Authors Matthew F. Delmont (Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad), Margaret A. Burnham (By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners), Dylan C. Penningroth (Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights), and Cookie Woolner (The Famous Lady Lovers: Black Women and Queer Desire Before Stonewall) look at the Black struggle in the decades before this historic verdict. 

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA LAW SCHOOL 

IN PERSON EVENT: “HIDDEN HISTORIES OF BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS"

February 13, 2024, 12-1:15 pm ET

Dylan C. Penningroth, a professor of law and history at the University of California, Berkeley, will discuss his new book Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights. Dean Risa Goluboff will give welcoming remarks. Lunch will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 11:45 a.m. Public parking will be available in the D2 lots that surround the Law School.

UC BERKELEY SOCIAL SCIENCE MATRIX

IN-PERSON EVENT​: AUTHOR MEETS CRITICS 

November 14, 2023, 12-1:30pm PT

Please join us for an Author Meets Critics panel on Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights, by Dylan Penningroth, Professor of Law and Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of History at UC Berkeley, and Associate Dean, Program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy / Legal Studies at Berkeley Law. Professor Penningroth will be joined in conversation by Ula Yvette Taylor, Professor and 1960 Chair of Undergraduate Education in the UC Berkeley Department of African American Studies and African Diaspora Studies; and Eric Schickler, Professor, Jeffrey & Ashley McDermott Endowed Chair in the Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley. The panel will be moderated by Waldo E. Martin Jr., the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of American History and Citizenship at UC Berkeley.

CITY LIGHTS BOOKS

VIRTUAL EVENT​:

DYLAN C. PENNINGROTH IN CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD THOMPSON FORD  

October 11, 2023, 6pm PST

City Lights and Liveright Books celebrate the publication of Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights – by Dylan C. Penningroth – published by Liveright Books

BOOK PASSAGE - SF FERRY BUILDING

IN-PERSON EVENT​:

DYLAN C. PENNINGROTH IN CONVERSATION WITH BRIAN DELAY 

October 17, 2023, 5pm PT

NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER

VIRTUAL EVENT: PANEL DISCUSSION

October 5, 2023, 12pm ET

Prize-winning historians Kate Masur, author of Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction, and Dylan Penningroth, author of the new book Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights, explore the central role of African Americans in the struggle for justice and equality long before the social movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO OF LAW SCHOOL

EARL B. DICKERSON CENTENNIAL CONFERENCE

October 30, 2020 

Earl B. Dickerson Centennial Conference: "Community and National Leader, "The Dickerson Centennial celebrates a historic milestone for our institution: the 100th anniversary of the graduation of one of our most distinguished alumni, Earl B. Dickerson.  

SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE

PANEL: "WHO IS BLACK AMERICA? THE FUTURE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN PAST."

May 20, 2016 

This session was part of The Future of the African American Past, a landmark conference that took place on May 19-21, 2016, marking the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

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