Karen Gantt to Speak on Land Loss and the Racial Wealth Gap

The University of Hartford Humanities Center Lecture Series for Spring 2023, focusing on the theme of “Decolonizing the University: Ethnic Studies,” continues Monday, March 20 from 5 p.m. – 6 p.m., in Hillyer 229 (please note the room change!).

The fifth talk in the series, “The Impact of Land Loss on the Racial Wealth Gap,” will be by Karen Gantt, Humanities Center Faculty Fellow and Professor of Business Law. In her talk, Professor Gantt will examine the historical causes (discriminatory housing policies and lending practices, land loss through legal and illegal means) that have created a gap where the average wealth of the African American community is ten times less than that of the White community. She will specifically explore the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre as but one historical cause for this discrepancy. This will lead to her discussion of other instances of land loss, including Bruce’s Beach in California, the Gullah-Geechee in South Carolina and Georgia, Seneca Village in New York, and Malaga Island in Maine.

The Humanities Center Lecture series is developed and led by Karen Tejada-Peña, Associate Professor of Sociology. For more information, contact Nicholas Ealy, director of the Humanities Center (ealy@hartford.edu), visit our webpage, or follow us on Facebook.