McManis Lecture: "The Voting Rights Act and the Courts"

2013 McManis Distinguished Lecturer Vernon Burton will deliver a lecture titled "The Voting Right Act and the Courts: Experiences of a Christian Expert Witness."

Dr. Burton is Distinguished Professor of History and Computer Science at Clemson University. A nationally recognized expert on the history of race relations in America, Professor Burton has been involved as an expert witness in more than 100 discrimination and voting rights cases across the past three decades. He is also the author of numerous books, including The Age of Lincoln (Hill and Wang, 2008) which won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Literary Award for Nonfiction.

In this lecture, Professor Burton will contend that historians have a responsibility both to the courts and to the general public to explain the history, purpose, and efficacy of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Professor Burton will share about how his Christian faith has informed his commitment as an expert witness for minorities in discrimination and voting cases.

This lecture, co-sponsored by the History Department and the J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy at Wheaton College, is free and open to the public. It will be held on the Wheaton College campus in room 339 of Blanchard Hall.