3Q: Robert McKersie on his civil rights memoir
The 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington has brought renewed attention to the history of the civil rights movement in the United States, including newly published accounts from its participants. Robert McKersie, a professor emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has just written his own memoir about the movement in Chicago. The book, “A Decisive Decade: An Insider’s View of the Chicago Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s,” published this month by Southern Illinois University Press, brings to light many of the crucial events and people of the period, especially “unsung heroes” such as the educators and activists Timuel Black and W. Alvin Pitcher. McKersie spoke to MIT News about his new book. Q. How did you become involved in the civil rights movement, and why did you decide to write a book about your experiences?A. I was at the University of Chicago as a junior...