Anthony Siracusa

St. John Fisher College, History, Faculty Member

Colorado College, Collaborative for Community Engagement, Assistant Director

University of Colorado, Boulder, Office of Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement, Senior Director of Inclusive Culture and Initiatives

University of Mississippi, Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Director of Community Engagement

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A historian of modern America and civic engagement professional in higher education, Siracusa focuses on religion, race, and politics in the modern U.S. He has written extensively about nonviolence and the Black Freedom Movement, and his first book was published by UNC Press in the Justice, Power, and Politics series. He teaches a variety of courses and workshops on African American history, religion, and politics, and develops and administers community engagement and academic programs for faculty, staff, students, and community partners. Anthony focuses on research projects and courses centered in co-creation, cultural change, community impact, and learning for both young people and adults.
Supervisors: Dennis C. Dickerson, Charles W. McKinney, Cade Smith, Cheryl Cornish, Dyonne Bergeron, and Carolyn Vacca

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Sheilagh Ogilvie

University of Oxford

Myles Werntz

Abilene Christian University

Scott R. Stroud

The University of Texas at Austin

Marc Champagne

Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Evan Thompson

University of British Columbia

Ian G Packer

Melbourne School of Theology

Simeon Chavel

University of Chicago

Daniel Hershenzon

University of Connecticut

Onur Ulas Ince

SOAS University of London

Derek Suderman

University of Waterloo

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Papers by Anthony Siracusa

Anke Ortlepp, Jim Crow Terminals: The Desegregation of American Airports. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2017. Pp. 2017. $74.95 (cloth); $26.95 (paper)

Journal of African American History, Mar 1, 2020

Lynching

BRILL eBooks, Nov 28, 2020

Disrupting the Calculation of Violence: James M. Lawson, Jr. and the Politics of Nonviolence

This paper suggests nonviolence in the United States was a form of moral being with roots in Gand... more This paper suggests nonviolence in the United States was a form of moral being with roots in Gandhism and the Christian tradition whose central architect was James M. Lawson, Jr. Commonly described as a leading âtacticianâ of nonviolence in the United States, this paper argues Lawsonâs primary contribution to nonviolence was not tactical but intellectual, the adaptation of Gandhism into a mode of moral being calibrated to the particular political and racial context of the US South. Conceived as a moral method of social engagement, the politics of nonviolence contrasted sharply with the immoral system of racialized violence in the US. In tracing the intellectual lineage of nonviolence through the thinking and writings of Mohandas Gandhi, A.J. Muste, Howard Thurman, and James M. Lawson, this paper argues James Lawsonâs reinterpretation of these previous religious intellectuals led him to conceive of nonviolence as a moral mode of political being in the modern United States.

Community Engagement across the Curriculum: Boyer, Integration, and the Challenges of Institutionalization

Community engagement now occupies a central place in American higher education. However, challeng... more Community engagement now occupies a central place in American higher education. However, challenges related to assessment, alignment, and ethics continue to limit its institutionalization, even among colleges and universities recognized for their accomplishments in community engagement (Driscoll, 2011). Addressing these challenges will require nothing less than what Butin (2010) calls an “intellectual movement”—a self-reflexive intellectual inquiry into the numerous assumptions undergirding service-learning and related pedagogies. This chapter presents an intellectual investigation of Ernest Boyer’s work on the scholarship of integration and applies his ideas to reconceptualize the meaning of community engagement for students, faculty, and institutional practice.

Understanding Militant Non-violence within Memphis’ Modern Civil Rights Movement: The Leadership and Witness of the Rev. James M Lawson Jr

Our power does not lie in Molotov cocktails. Our strength is not in rocks and bottles. Our power ... more Our power does not lie in Molotov cocktails. Our strength is not in rocks and bottles. Our power lies in our willingness to endure suffering and determination to persist in nonviolent resistance to wrong. Riots are the desperate cry of the unheard. Summer riots are caused by America's winter of dalliance with justice. But riots are not the answer…I still believe in non-violence. I have watched it work. You can't ride a man's back unless it is bent. In Birmingham they turned dogs and fire hoses on us when we straightened our backs. But we had a fire in our souls that water couldn't put out. Before it was over, we had 10,000 people crying to be locked up in Bull Connor's jail. But there wasn't enough room for them."-Martin Luther King Jr. Speaking at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Memphis, 1966 1 The tension between armed resistance and non-violence was evident in every phase of the Modern Civil Rights movement, but the debate rose to a fevered pitch in 1966 as Stokely Carmichael assumed the helm of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In the summer of 1966, Carmichael confronted the non-violent forces in the movement with his call for "Black Power," effectively challenging Martin King and his non-violent followers with this powerful new rallying cry. But beyond the threat of violence, one of the most alarming elements of Black Power rhetoric was its militancy, a militancy which promised to fight racial injustice by any means necessary. As Jeffery Ogbar points out, "Blacks had become tired of asking whites for acceptance and inclusion. They were intolerant of appeasing white liberals with language that whites

Anthony Siracusa

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