TROY, AL. – Abilene Christian University Professor Fred Bailey will be the featured speaker at Troy University’s fourth annual McPherson-Mitchell Lecture in Southern History to be held at the Claudia Crosby Theater at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 14.

Bailey, chair of the Abilene Christian Department of History, will present “After Populism: Redeemer History and Social Control in New South Alabama, 1890-1920,” a discussion of Alabama’s Civil Rights struggles in the post Populist era.

The annual lecture, hosted by TROY’s Department of History and Phi Alpha Theta chapter, is held in honor of Norma Mitchell and Milton McPherson, retired Troy University history professors.

“They contributed a lot to the department, so we enjoy the opportunity to do something to remember them,” said Scout Blum, professor of history.   

Blum, a professor of history at TROY, said Bailey’s lecture should be quite interesting. 

“The lecture may open some students’ eyes to the origins of some things that they have heard all their lives and will hopefully make them think a little deeper about the ways ideas of intolerance and racism can be spread through education,” Blum said.

Bailey has been an instructor for Abilene Christian University’s Department of History since 1984.  He received a bachelor’s degree from Harding University and master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Tennessee. 

In addition to authoring two books, Bailey has written more than 40 articles published in journals, anthologies and academic reference books.  Some of his recognitions include the Tennessee History Book Award and the A. Elizabeth Taylor Award for the Outstanding Article on Southern Women presented by the Southern Association of Women’s Historians.

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