Panel on Eisenhower's Civil Rights Legacy

A panel discussion on President Eisenhower's role in the civil rights movement took place on September 26, 2007 at Gettysburg College.  "The Eisenhower Civil Rights Legacy: Fifty Years Later," was in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower's deployment of federal troops to enforce court order desegregation of Little Rock Central High School on Sept. 24, 1957. The event was sponsored by The Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College.

The panel featured scholars David Nichols, author of the new book "A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution," and Irwin Gellman, author of the first of a multi-volume biography "The Contender: Richard Nixon, The Congress Years 1946-1952." Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of the former president, served as the moderator.

Nichols earned a bachelor's degree majoring in both music and history from Northwestern University and received a master's in music from Northwestern University, a master's in history from Roosevelt University and a Ph.D. in history from The College of William and Mary. He has held several teaching and administrative posts and retired as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Southwestern College in 2003. He has made several presentations on President Eisenhower and Civil Rights, including a lecture on "Brown vs. Board of Education" as part of Topeka's 50th anniversary programs in 2004, the Herbert Brownell Memorial Lecture at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. in 2005 and a lecture on Eisenhower's intervention in Little Rock at Princeton University in 2006. His book "Lincoln and the Indians: Civil War Policy and Politics," first published in 1978, was republished by the University of Illinois Press in 2000 and is considered the definitive work on Lincoln's Indian policy.

Gellman earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Maryland and Ph.D. from Indiana University. He has written extensively on Franklin D. Roosevelt and United States foreign and domestic policy. His book "Secret Affairs: Franklin Roosevelt, Cordell Hun and Sumner Welles" was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. A well-known lecturer, he recently lectured on "Eisenhower, Nixon and Billy Graham: Their Religious Beliefs, 1952-1961" and "Eisenhower and Nixon: Their Real Connection" and has appeared on C-SPAN and The History Channel. He served as an advisor to the Miller Center's Presidential Recording Project at the University of Virginia for a multi-volume publication of Nixon's presidential tapes. His most recent academic position was a visiting professor at the University of California at Irvine.