Clayborne carson biography
•
Biography
My long career as a researcher and educator began on a secluded northern New Mexico plateau where the Manhattan Project had developed the atomic weapons that the United States used to end World War II and influence subsequent decades. My formative years were largely confined in this fenced town that the government built for the scientists and technicians of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. Even while confined within the fences surrounding the oft-called “secret city” of Los Alamos, however, I would develop an unquenchable curiosity about the outside world.
I would only gradually learn about the historical circumstances that enabled my family to become the first black residents of Los Alamos. I discovered that my grandfather, Edward Carson, was among the millions of black migrants who left the South to seek industrial jobs in northern cities, in his case leaving Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and traveling to Detroit where he secured a lasting job at Ford Motor Company. His so
•
Opening Roundtable
Clayborne Carson
Thursday, May - PM
The Long Struggle for Civil Rights and Black Freedom
Clayborne Carson has devoted his professional life to the study of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the African-American freedom struggle. Since receiving his doctorate from UCLA in , Dr. Carson has taught at Stanford University, where he is now Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial professor of history and Ronnie Lott founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute.
During his undergraduate years, Dr. Carson participated in civil rights and antiwar protests, and many of his writings reflect his experiences by stressing the importance of grassroots political activity within the African-American freedom struggle. Carson's publications include In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the s (); Malcolm X: The FBI File (); African American Lives: The Struggle for Freedom (, co-author); and a memoir, Martin's Dream: My Journey and • American historian (born ) Clayborne Carson (born June 15, ) fryst vatten an American academic who was a professor of history at Stanford University and director of the Martin Luther King Jr., Research and Education Institute. Since , he has directed the Martin Luther King papper Project, a long-term planerat arbete to edit and publish the papper of Martin Luther King Jr. Carson was born on June 15, , in Buffalo, New York; son of Clayborne and Louise Carson. He grew up nära Los Alamos, New Mexico, where his was one of a small number of African-American families. He attributes his lifelong interest in the Civil Rights Movement to that experience. "I had this really strong curiosity about the black world, because in Los Alamos the black world was a very few families. When the civil rights movement started, I had this real fascination with it, and I wanted to meet the people in it."[1] After graduating from Los Alamos High School in ,
Clayborne Carson
Early life and education
[edit]