Rise reaps reward


Merle Black, Emory’s Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Political Science, and his twin brother, Earl Black, Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Political Science at Rice University (below, l-r), have won the prestigious V.O. Keyes Award for their most recent book, The Rise of Southern Republicans (Harvard University Press, 2002). The award is given each year by the Southern Political Science Association to the most outstanding book on Southern politics.

The Blacks’ third book documents how the political tide has shifted dramatically in the South, with the Republicans making great gains in the last half-century. Since the civil rights movement began in the 1950s, an increasing number of white conservatives and moderates have identified with the Republican party.

The brothers contend this gives the U.S. its first real two-party system in more than a century, with the South, once a solidly Democratic region, up for grabs. And with the presidential election fast approaching, his expertise has made Merle Black one of the most widely quoted faculty members on campus as the media try to channel fickle political trends.

Black is no fortune-teller, though, as he recently told the Seattle Times: “Anybody could win.”–P.P.P


Emory celebrates eighty-ninth Charter Day

Each year, Emory observes the day its Atlanta campus was established–January 25, 1915, when DeKalb County granted its charter–with a dinner. But this year, for the first time, the celebration was expanded into the Mid-Winter Academic Festival of the Arts and Sciences.

The week of events, January 26-February 1, included the traditional Charter Celebration dinner; a new debate series; a poetry reading by Scholar-Teacher of the Year Lucas Carpenter, professor of English at Oxford College; the reading of a new play by Jim Grimsley, director of the creative writing program; dance presentations; and a planetarium open house to view the rings of Saturn.

Walter Beckham ’70C-’77L, a lawyer with the Atlanta firm of Parks, Chesin, Walbert, and Miller who spoke at the annual Charter Day banquet in Cox Hall, emphasized the importance of alumni support.

“The charter established a family,” Beckham said,“whose task is bringing the past and present together for the future.”

 
 
 

 

© 2004 Emory University