Brandon Winford | John Hervey Wheeler, Black Banking, & the Economic Struggle for Civil Rights
Brandon Winford discusses his new book, John Hervey Wheeler, Black Banking, and the Economic Struggle for Civil Rights. Wheeler was one of the civil rights movement's most influential leaders. In articulating a bold vision of regional prosperity grounded in full citizenship and economic power for African Americans, this banker, lawyer, and visionary played a leading role in the fight for racial and economic equality throughout North Carolina. Wheeler began his career as a teller at Mechanics and Farmers Bank and rose to become bank president. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Wheeler to the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, a position in which he championed equal rights for African Americans. Dr. Winford is assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee. He's a historian of the 19th and 20th century U.S. and African American history
Sponsored by the Global Financial Markets Center.