EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, it is necessary to postpone the Distinguished Faculty Lecture scheduled for March 22 at 7 p.m. in the COFAC Recital Hall. As soon as a new date/has been determined, the campus community will be notified. MACOMB/MOLINE, IL – The Western Illinois University 2023 Distinguished University Professor Peter Cole will deliver the Distinguished Faculty Lecture, The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19), at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 22 in the College of Fine Arts and Communication (COFAC) Recital Hall. The lecture is open free to the... Read More

Western Illinois University History Professor Peter Cole recently launched a second edition of his book, “Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly,” an expanded and revised version of the first edition. The second edition has drawn readers’ attention far more than the first because more Americans are focused on fighting racism, compared to past years. Cole was originally inspired to write his book when searching for a dissertation topic back in the mid 1990s. While in a graduate seminar, Cole read a book about the history of the Industrial Workers of the World, a powerful... Read More

A public art project, co-founded by Western Illinois University History Professor Peter Cole to commemorate the deaths caused by the 1919 Chicago Race Riot, has entered into an exciting partnership with two National Basketball Association (NBA) teams to bring programming into Chicago and Tulsa, OK classrooms. Cole and Franklin Cosey-Gay, executive director of the Chicago Center for Youth Violence Protection, co-direct the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19). Its goal is to create and install markers at each of the 38 locations where a life was lost in 1919. The project is also... Read More

As part of the 2021 celebration of Black History Month at Western Illinois University, University of Missouri-Columbia Associate Professor Keona Ervin will deliver the keynote address, “Reimagining Liberation: Black Feminism from the Combahee River Collective to the Movement for Black Lives,” virtually from 6-7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2. The address will provide an overview of the organizing work of radical Black feminists from the 1970s to present. It will include a discussion of the ways Black feminism has uniquely shaped and critiqued movements for social democracy. The virtual address... Read More

An effort to create a public art project, co-founded by a Western Illinois University history professor to commemorate the lives lost during the 1919 Chicago Race Riot, has received a grant from Illinois Humanities to further the project and related events. WIU Professor Peter Cole and Franklin Cosey-Gay, executive director of the Chicago Center for Youth Violence Protection, co-direct the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19). Its goal is to create and install markers at each of the 38 locations where a life was lost in 1919 – still the deadliest incident of racial violence... Read More