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Research and Innovation

Historical Context and Insight on Events in Ferguson

For Immediate Release

Recent and ongoing events in Ferguson, Missouri, are prompting widespread discussions about civil rights, the justice system, law enforcement and other issues surrounding race in the United States.

Dr. Blair Kelley, a historian and civil rights scholar at North Carolina State University, can offer insight into the events unfolding in Ferguson.

“My work on the history of movements, fights for legal justice and the history of civil rights gives me a scholarly background that is particularly well-suited to discuss the history that undergirds the events in Ferguson,” says Kelley, an associate professor of history at NC State. Kelley is also the assistant dean for interdisciplinary studies and international programs in NC State’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Reporters can contact Kelley directly at 919-513-2225 or blmkelley@ncsu.edu.

“I’m interested not only in the legal case, but also the federal response and the emergence of a movement in Ferguson,” Kelley says. “As a historian of movements, I think it’s important that we think about Ferguson from the perspective of those who live and work there and who are organizing now.”