History for Lunch: A Forgotten Migration

The Illinois State Museum Society invites you to an enlightening History for Lunch presentation with award-winning historian Dr. Crystal Sanders, author of A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregation Scholarships, and the Debt Owed to Public HBCUs.

Dr. Sanders will examine how Southern white segregationists worked to uphold segregation by systematically underfunding public Historically Black Colleges and Universities and creating state funded scholarship programs that encouraged Black scholars to seek education in Northern states. Illinois institutions, such as Knox College and the University of Chicago, became a destination for many recipients of these scholarships. 

This strategy, designed to preserve segregation, has left a lasting legacy on higher education and racial equity in America. Dr. Sanders' talk offers a deeper understanding of these policies and their continued relevance today.

For a sneak peak of what will be discussed, watch Dr. Sanders’ PBS documentary series here.  

Panara sandwiches will be provided and free copies of Dr. Sanders' book will be available.

This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Advance registration is required.

Register online here or call Kate Suits at 217-524-4222 to reserve your spot.

About Dr. Crystal Sanders:
Crystal R. Sanders is an award-winning historian of the United States in the twentieth century. Her research and teaching interests include African American History, Black Women's History, and the History of Black Education. She received her BA (cum laude) in History and Public Policy from Duke University and a Ph.D. in History from Northwestern University. She is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Previously, she was an Associate Professor of History and the former Director of the Africana Research Center at Pennsylvania State University.

Sanders is the author of A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregation Scholarships, and the Debt Owed to Public HBCUs, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2024. The book won the 2025 Pauli Murray Prize from the African American Intellectual History Society and the 2025 Outstanding Publication Award from SIG 168 of the American Educational Research Association. She is also the author of A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi's Black Freedom Struggle published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016 as part of the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture. The book won the 2017 Critics Choice Award from the American Educational Research Association and the 2017 New Scholar’s Book Award from Division F of the American Educational Research Association. The book was also a finalist for the 2016 Hooks National Book Award. Sanders’ work can also be found in many of the leading history journals including the Journal of Southern History, the North Carolina Historical Review, and the Journal of African American History.

Sanders is the recipient of a host of fellowships and prizes. These honors include the C. Vann Woodward Prize from the Southern Historical Association, the Huggins-Quarles Award from the Organization of American Historians, and the Equity Award from the American Historical Association. She has also received an Andrew Mellon Graduate Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Visiting Scholars Fellowship at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellowship at the National Humanities Center.