Todd Allen: Returning to the Roots of Civil Rights

Dr. Todd Allen is the Special Assistant to the President & Provost for Diversity Affairs/Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Messiah College. Prior to his tenure at Messiah College, he had been employed at Grove City College and Geneva College. He received his B.A. in Communication from Geneva College in 1991, an M.A. in Rhetorical Studies from the University of Akron in 1995, and a PhD in Rhetorical Studies from Duquesne University in 2009. A frequent presenter at colleges/universities, conferences, and community events, he has taught a variety of courses that promote the intersection of diversity, civility, and the liberal arts.

In 2002 Dr. Allen founded The Common Ground Project, a community based non-profit dedicated to promoting an understanding of the Civil Rights Movement. For the past 19 years, in partnership with the PNC Foundation, he has led one of the longest operating Civil Rights Movement tours in the nation, “Returning to the Roots of Civil Rights,” which was featured in a 2006 documentary produced by WQED-Pittsburgh. In 2015, he contributed a chapter on civil rights movement tourism to the book Black Scholars in White Space: New Vistas in African American Studies From The Christian Academy. For his scholarship he has been the recipient of numerous awards including: Fellowship at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (Yale University, 2010), The New Pittsburgh Courier 50 Men of Excellence (2009), NEH Fellowship (Harvard University, 2008), and the YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh Racial Justice Award (2005).

A native of Beaver Falls, PA Todd and his wife Lonette have been married for 26 years and are the proud parents of a son, Bryce, who is a Junior at the University of Akron. Dr. Allen joins John on the show today to discuss his role at Messiah College and his annual tour through the South to commemorate and learn from events in U.S. Civil Rights History.