Overview
Robert Korstad is Emeritus Professor of Public Policy and History at Duke University. He received his B.A. and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
His research interests include twentieth century U. S. history, labor history, African American history, and contemporary social policy.
His publications include: Fragile Democracy: The Struggle Over Race and Voting Rights in North Carolina (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, 2020); To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, 2010); Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South (University of North Carolina Press, 2003); Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Talk About Life in the Segregated South (coeditor, The New Press, 2001); Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, revised edition, 2000).
His research interests include twentieth century U. S. history, labor history, African American history, and contemporary social policy.
His publications include: Fragile Democracy: The Struggle Over Race and Voting Rights in North Carolina (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, 2020); To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, 2010); Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South (University of North Carolina Press, 2003); Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Talk About Life in the Segregated South (coeditor, The New Press, 2001); Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, revised edition, 2000).
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Professor Emeritus of Public Policy
·
2020 - Present
Sanford School of Public Policy
Bass Fellow
·
2012 - Present
Sanford School of Public Policy
Recent Publications
Curing my historical schizophrenia
Chapter · January 1, 2016 Full text CiteCotton mill people: Work, community, and Protest in the Textile South, 1880-1940
Chapter · February 7, 2013 CiteTo right these wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the battle to end poverty and inequality in 1960s America
Book · January 1, 2010 When Governor Terry Sanford established the North Carolina Fund in 1963, he saw it as a way to provide a better life for the "tens of thousands whose family income is so low that daily subsistence is always in doubt." Illustrated with evocative photographs ... CiteRecent Grants
Voting Rights and the Expansion of Democracy in America: Who Made Possible One Person, One Vote
ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by National Endowment for the Humanities · 2017 - 2020Bull City 150
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by North Carolina Humanities Council · 2018 - 2019Challenging the Master Narrative of the Civil Rights Movement
Public ServicePrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Endowment for the Humanities · 2017 - 2019View All Grants
Education, Training & Certifications
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill ·
1987
Ph.D.