Speaker Spotlight: Gregory Mixon

You can find Dr. Gregory Mixon, Associate Professor for the Department of History at UNC Charlotte and author of The Atlanta Riot: Race, Class, and Violence in a New South City, on the list of speakers for our Scholars & Policymakers Symposium October 27th-28th. Mixon received his PhD from the University of Cincinnati and now teaches courses on African American history and racial violence at UNC Charlotte. His research and teaching interests include racial violence, race relations, Southern history, urban history, the Progressive Era, and black southern state militias.
His first book, The Atlanta Riot: Race, Class, and Violence in a New South City, focuses on the tragic event that started on September 22, 1906. The massacre left over 30 people dead and 70 injured. He works to trace the sources of the riot by examining political, social, and urban factors affecting race relations in the early 20th century. While noting the causes most commonly cited, such as the instigation of the press, Mixon also explores the role that white elites in Atlanta played in generating new forms of political and racial divisions that led to the explosive conflict. While this was his first book published, Mixon has written several other pieces for the Georgia Historical Quarterly and Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South.

Mixon is currently working on two additional publications. His second book, tentatively titled We Called It a Band of Brothers, focuses on African American militiamen in the Southern states, specifically Georgia, between 1865 and 1910. During his writing process, Mixon was one of twenty-five scholars invited to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute focusing on African American Struggles for Freedom and Human Rights from 1865 to 1965. The courses he teaches in 19th and 20th century African American history and his research for his second novel made him a perfect candidate for the month-long institute. Mixon is also writing a political biography on Henry A. Rucker, the only African American to be appointed as a Collector of Internal Revenue in the district of Georgia, from 1897-1911.

Don’t miss Dr. Mixon’s appearance at the Scholars & Policymakers Symposium happening Oct. 27-28, 2014 at the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. He will speak at the Politics of Social Relations session, from 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 28. And stay tuned to the blog for more speaker spotlights in the weeks leading up to the event!