Free People of Color Lecture Series looks at 'the first civil rights movement'

The Free People of Color Lecture Series hosted by King Hall's Aoki Center and the UC Davis Department of History continued this week to explore the rights of people of color in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries, and inquire how that history continues to shape our thinking today.

The series brings leading scholars from around the country to answer such questions as: What does freedom mean in the absence of chattel slavery? Which rights adhere to all free people, and which rights functioned more as privileges belonging to a narrow few? How did the establishment of birthright national citizenship transform the legal rights both of citizens and of so-called aliens?

This week, Dr. Paul Finkelman, president of Gratz College and an American legal historian, offered insights on the “first civil rights movement” in the United States. His historical analysis of addressing inequality was gripping.