History’s Goldfield Presents in Black History Month Events in Brussels

The U.S Embassy to Belgium and the U.S Mission to the European Union celebrated Black History Month in Brussels by hosting a lively panel discussion including panelist David Goldfield, the Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at UNC Charlotte. Joining him on the panel were Prof. Maboula Soumahoro of the University of Tours (France), and Dr. Michael Privot, Director of the European Network Against Racism. They, along with guests, discussed the history of Black History Month as well as its relevance in today’s society.

While on the trip Goldfield was interviewed by Belgium’s first and only English Speaking radio station, Radio X, which serves the Expat and international business community. He also presented on Election 2014 to the students of Sint Pieterscollege High School in Leuven, Belgium on February 26, 2014, sponsored by the US Embassy in Brussels. The school is a Flemish Catholic High School that educates many of Belgium’s Flemish-speaking leaders. The topic of the civil rights movement is new to most students, and teachers were holding special lessons on the Emmett Till case, as well as the classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” book. He also gave a briefing to U.S. Embassy personnel on Feb. 25 on the 1964 Civil Rights Act and racial progress over the past 50 years, and also presented on the 2014 United States elections at the Free University of Brussels.

Goldfield is a faculty member in the Department of History at UNC Charlotte. He has published 16 books on various aspects of Southern and American history, including “Cotton Fields and Skyscrapers”,”Black, White, and Southern”, and “Still Fighting the Civil War“, as well as his most recent book, the best-selling “America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation”. Two of his books have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Goldfield has served as an expert witness in voting rights cases, consulted for history museums, and works as an academic specialist for the U.S. State Department, leading seminars and workshops abroad on various aspects of American political culture and providing historical context for contemporary elections. In another recent honor, he delivered the annual Caldwell Lecture in the Humanities in October 2013, as longtime community benefactors Sally Dalton and Russell Robinson II received the John T. Caldwell Award for the Humanities from the N.C. Humanities Council. Goldfield earned his Ph.D. in 1970 at the University of Maryland.

Words: Angelina Murdasova. Image: Courtesy of David Goldfield