The Cabildos Speaker Series presents Dr. Carmen Thompson. Thompson analyzes the origin of White supremacy and its role in defining America's racial history.

Carmen P. Thompson is a historian and author of The Making of American Whiteness: The Formation of Race in Seventeenth- Century Virginia.  She earned her PhD in U.S. History from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and her Masters of Arts in African American Studies from Columbia University in New York.  Dr. Thompson is a highly sought expert on Race and Whiteness in America.  Her scholarship was quoted in the December 2022 Oregon State Supreme Court decision, Watkins, Jacob Keith v. Ackley, regarding the disparate racial impact of non-unanimous jury decisions.  She wrote the introduction to the forthcoming book, Protest City: Portland’s Summer of Rage, a photo book that chronicles the yearlong protests in Portland, Oregon after the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020.  And she co-edited and authored articles in the peer reviewed journal, Oregon Historical Quarterly, 2019 special issue on White supremacy in Oregon.  She has held visiting scholar appointments at the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University in New York and in the Black Studies Department at Portland State University, and has taught a wide range of courses on the Black experience and Whiteness at Portland State University and Portland Community College.

A catered reception will follow this event, and Grass Roots Books and Music will be in attendance with Thompson's book available for purchase.

A Black History Month event presented by the College of Liberal Arts, Center for Humanities.