Event: Forum Discussion -- “A Dream Deferred, Not Denied: Desegregation of Higher Education”

A forum discussion about the desegregation of higher education and UL Lafayette led by panelists Dr. Michael Martin and Dr. Shawn Wilson.

“A Dream Deferred, Not Denied: Desegregation in Higher Education” will be held at the MLK exhibition at Blackham Collisium on Saturday, Febraruy 19, 2022. Dr. Micheal Martin will present on the desegregation of higher education and UL Lafayette and Dr. Shawn Wilson will talk about his experiences as a student and the first president of the Christiana Smith Alumni Association.

There will be a Q&A/ Forum after the presentation.

Saturday, Feb. 19 | 3 p.m.
Blackham Coliseum
Free

Michael S. Martin holds the Cheryl Courrégé Burguières/Board of Regents Professorship in History. His research and teaching interests focus on Louisiana history, public history, and the history of the U.S. South. He is a contributing faculty member of the Guilbeau Center for Public History, an affiliated faculty member of the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Center for Public Policy, and past director of the Center for Louisiana Studies. Martin’s recent publications include Firsthand Louisiana: Primary Sources in the History of the State (as co-editor, 2020), Rethinking New Acadia: Recent Essays on the Acadian Dispersal and Arrival in Louisiana (as editor, 2019); The Louisiana Experience (as co-author, 2017). He also is managing editor of the journal Louisiana History, published quarterly by the Louisiana Historical Association. In 2020, Martin was named a Fellow of the Louisiana Historical Association and the inaugural Sanders Research Scholar by the Center for Southeastern Louisiana Studies. He earned his BA and MA in history from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and his Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas. A native of Lafayette, he has worked at UL Lafayette since 2003.

Shawn Wilson, a native of New Orleans, earned a B.A. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) in 1993 and a Master of Public Administration and Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Southern University. While at UL Lafayette, he helped establish the National Pan-Hellenic Council (Black Greeks) on campus and served as the first African American SGA president. In 2004, when he was president of the UL Lafayette Alumni Association, Dr. Wilson spearheaded the Pillars of Progress Memorial, which honors the first African American students enrolled at the University.

In 2016, Dr. Wilson was appointed by Governor John Bel Edwards to become the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), after having worked in the department since 2004. Accomplishments include securing funds to widen Highway I-10, investing $1.7 billion to improve infrastructure, and procuring $650 million in Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle (GARVEE) bonds for Urban Interstate Reconstruction and Louisiana’s first Public Private Partnership.