‘MTSU On the Record’ guest updates race relations in Alabama’s ‘Black Belt’

Dr. Sekou Franklin, right, an associate professor of political science and international relations, is the guest on the next "MTSU On the Record" radio program. His interview with Host Gina Logue will air from 9:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1, and from 6 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 6, on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org. Franklin and other members of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists conducted a survey of 300 white and Black people in Dallas County, where Selma is the county seat, and 200 white and Black people in surrounding counties in Alabama’s so-called “Black Belt.” (MTSU photo of Franklin; Edmond Pettus Bridge photo courtesy of the civilrightstrail.com)

Dr. Sekou Franklin, right, an associate professor of political science and international relations, is the guest on the “MTSU On the Record” radio program that first aired Feb. 1 on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org. Franklin and other members of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists conducted a survey of 300 white and Black people in Dallas County, where Selma is the county seat, and 200 white and Black people in surrounding counties in Alabama’s so-called “Black Belt.” (MTSU photo of Franklin; Edmond Pettus Bridge photo courtesy of the civilrightstrail.com)

More than 56 years after civil rights marchers were brutally beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, “MTSU On the Record” took another look at race relations in the area surrounding Selma, Alabama.

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Dr. Sekou Franklin, an associate professor in MTSU’s Department of Political Science and International Relations, first aired Feb. 1 on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org.

You can listen to their conversation via the SoundCloud link above.

Dr. Sekou Franklin

Gina K. Logue

Franklin and other members of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists conducted a survey of 300 white and Black people in Dallas County, where Selma is the county seat, and 200 white and Black people in surrounding counties in Alabama’s so-called “Black Belt.”

The study found both points of division and commonality on issues that included violence, local government, Black Lives Matter, school segregation, living wages and the impact of COVID-19.

“There’s a tradition in Southern rural communities that’s not just about whites who have racial animus,” Franklin said. “Also foundational to the history of the South is a resistance emanating from Black working class communities, a resistance that, at times, has actually tried to build multiracial coalitions.”