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Dr. Marcia Chatelain

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  • Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author
  • Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania
  • Author of 'Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America' & 'How Bright The Path Grows'
  • Creator, #FergusonSyllabus

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scholar of African American life and culture Dr. Marcia Chatelain helps organizations respond to and solve the challenges that confront them. Dr. Chatelain was a Reach for Excellence Assistant Professor of Honors and African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, and is currently a Professor of History and African American Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She also served on the Georgetown University Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, and is a renowned voice on universities, slavery, and reparations. Her first book, South Side Girls: Growing up in the Great Migration, reimagines the mass exodus of Black Southerners to the urban North from the perspective of girls and teenage women. Dr. Chatelain uses her deep background and experience as a facilitator to help organizations create practical strategies to achieve their goals.

Dr. Chatelain won a 2021 Pulitzer Prize for her book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, which examines the intersection of the post-1968 Civil Rights struggle and the rise of the fast-food industry. Franchise was chosen as a New York Times Critics’ Top 10 Book, and received the Hagley Prize for Best Book in Business History, the Organization of American Historians’ Lawrence W. Levine Award, as well as the James Beard Award. Her latest book, How Bright the Path Grows: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the March on Washington shares the untold story of the women who attended the 1963 March on Washington during the civil rights movement. She was a 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, and was named a Top Influencer in Higher Education by the Chronicle of Higher Education in recognition of her curation of #FergusonSyllabus, a response to the crisis in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. She also serves as a consultant for many media outlets including The Atlantic, C-Span, MS NOW, CNN, and BBC America. Dr. Chatelain has offered her insights about the many ways history impacts our present and shapes our future in sought-after events with groups like St. Olaf College, Creative Mornings, The Aspen Institute, the Smithsonian Institution, A&E Networks, and more.

 
Dr. Marcia Chatelain headshot
Past Hosts Include:
  • A+E Networks HISTORY Talks
  • Southern Methodist University Center for Presidential History
  • Columbia University
  • Jewish Community Center of San Francisco
  • Chicago Beyond
  • North Shore Country Day School
  • Harvard University Kennedy School of Public Policy

Keynote - The Other Franchise Fight: Fast Food and Black Freedom from U Street to Capitol Hill | DC History [1:17:24] - Get Sharable Link
Talks & Conversations with Dr. Marcia Chatelain
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Capitalism, Race, and Class: The Case of McDonald’s

A conversation about how everything you need to know about race and inequality can be learned by examining the history of McDonald’s. DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN explores how fast food uncovers American’s hidden histories of identity, economic
opportunity, and hunger for justice.

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Racism in Our Streets and Structures

DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN is a leading voice on the intersection of race and faith. In this conversation, Dr. Chatelain speaks to the conflicted history of American slaveholding, religion, and social justice.

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Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America

DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN’s 2020 book Franchise was a highly regarded examination of the roots of today’s obesity crisis, food deserts, and struggle for food justice. By examining the history of McDonald’s in America, Dr. Chatelain tells the story of race, civil rights, and the question about how to best deliver equal opportunity.

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South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration

Based on DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN’s first book, this talk captures the myriad of emotions and experiences of girls and young women during the massive urbanization of African Americans. An ever popular topic for Black History Month, Dr. Chatelain highlights why gender mattered then and now.

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Social Media for Social Change: Using Digital Tools Today to Respond to Tomorrow’s Challenges

As creator of the viral #FergusonSyllabus movement in 2014, DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN shares her experience using social media to organize educators and inspire students to have candid conversations about race in America.

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Creativity, Art, and the History of (in)equality

In this lecture, DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN explains how the history of American art, maps, and visual culture can be our best tools for understanding race and racism in America.

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Author Talk, 'How Bright the Path Grows: The Women Who Made the March on Washington'

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian MARCIA CHATELAIN draws from her forthcoming book How Bright the Path Grows to uncover the stories of the Black women whose leadership helped shape the 1963 March on Washington. Through fresh historical insight and powerful storytelling, she reveals what their contributions can teach us today about influence, recognition, and how lasting change is often driven by people working beyond the spotlight.

Books by Dr. Marcia Chatelain
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Biography
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