60 years of civil rights with Mary Frances Berry

Emeritus professor Mary Frances Berry reflected on the 60-year anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in conversation with Marcia Chatelain. (Image: Tyrone Bullock Jr.)

From Penn Today

Written by Kristina García

Mary Frances Berry wrote her first book on Black citizenship and the Constitution in 1977. Since then, she’s been a part of civil rights history, serving as assistant secretary for education in the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for 24 years; and as the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought at the University of Pennsylvania since 1987.

Now emeritus, Berry reflected on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in conversation with Marcia Chatelain, the Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, on Oct. 10 as part of the Africana Lecture Series.