News release Public Information Office  SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu Spring 2004 news releases Public Information home News archive Contact: Christina Chapple Date: 2/11/05   LECTURE ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN BASEBALL CONTINUES BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIES        HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University’s Black History Month lecture series continues Monday, Feb. 14, with a look at the storied history of African-American baseball by Southeastern historian and author Randy Sanders.         Upcoming lectures in this lively series – an annual faculty contribution to Black History Month in February -- include “Black in Blue: African-American Police Officers and Racism" by Kenneth Bolton, assistant professor of criminal justice, 2 p.m., Feb. 21; “Does Color Matter? Issues of Racial Conflict in Black American Culture” by Celina Echols, associate professor of education, 6:30 p.m., Feb. 24; and “In Black and White: The Role of Newspapers in Race Relations in the Florida Parishes 1920-1940” by Reginald Span, Southeastern alumnus and Tulane University doctoral candidate, 2 p.m., Feb. 28.      All Black History Month lectures are free and are scheduled for room 223 in the War Memorial Student Union. The sponsoring departments – History and Political Science, Sociology and Criminal Justice, Human Development, and Educational Leadership and Technology – have dedicated the series to the late Albert J. Doucette Jr., associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Doucette, a long-time African-American member of the Southeastern administration and biological sciences faculty, died in 2004.      Sanders has titled his 2 p.m. lecture “Blackball: Negro League Baseball.” A native of Atlanta and graduate of the University of New Orleans and Louisiana State University, Sanders has traveled to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., and other national archives for his in-progress work, “The Georgia Peach and the Sultan of Swat: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and the Character of the American People.”       In 2003, the assistant professor of history received praise from reviewers and noted historians such as Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin for his book, “Mighty Peculiar Elections: The New South Gubernatorial Campaigns of 1970 and the Changing Politics of Race.”      Also in 2003, Sanders, a regular participant in professional organizations, presented “The Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina” at the prestigious Citadel Conference. His 2002 “Florida Historical Quarterly” article, “Rassling a Governor: Defiance, Desegregation, Claude Kirk and the Politics of Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy,” received the Arthur W. Thompson Award for Best Article of 2002. He also has written “Delivering Demon Rum: Prohibition Rum-Running in the Gulf of Mexico,” which appeared in the “Gulf South Historical Review,” and “The Sad Duty of Politics:  Jimmy Carter and the Issue of Race in His 1970 Gubernatorial Campaign” for the “Georgia Historical Quarterly.”       At Southeastern Sanders teaches survey courses on American history; and upper-level courses on African-American history, modern United States history, and major problems in American history. He also teaches a graduate seminar on American history since 1900.      For additional information on the Black History Month lecture series, contact Bill Robison, head of the Department of History and Political Science, 985-549-2109. For a complete schedule of Black History Month activities, visit the link at www.selu.edu.