Founded on the campus of Loyola University Maryland in 2020, the Karson Institute for Race, Peace, & Social Justice provides a scholarly space for professors, students, social justice workers, and activists to come together to research, discuss, debate, and explore answers to America’s most urgent questions on inequality, injustice, and racial inequity.

In 1926, when Dr. Carter G. Woodson—the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the son of formerly enslaved parents, a former sharecropper and miner, and the second Black person to earn a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University—sent out a press release announcing the first Negro History Week, a gear shifting moment. He chose February because the Black community was already celebrating the historic achievements on the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (2/12) and Frederick Douglass (2/14). Dr. Woodson did not wait for the celebration of our history to be proclaimed, he proclaimed it. He did not wait for someone to give him permission to celebrate what we have contributed to this country, he celebrated it.

We believe that we are in the midst of one of those moments and that The Karson Institute is the place to house the research, train students and community members, and operationalize the movement for social justice. We tell and capture the stories of this moment. We are both committed to addressing these difficult questions and uniquely situated to provide multiple opportunities to think through and implement solutions.

As we begin to wind down Black History Month 2025, join The Karson Institute for Race, Peace, & Social Justice for a night of artivism (music, poetry, & art), food, and a panel discussion highlighting the 60th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act: Understanding American Politics and Policies, from Recession to Reconstruction!

Registration is required but the event is free. Bring your notebooks, pens, and your ideas as we delve into the some of the legislation that has shaped and is shaping our lives 

I will leave the light on for you…