Thomas  Durant  Jr. 

Emeritus Professor

E-mail: [email protected]

Education

PhD: Sociology, University of Wisconsin

Full CV

Area of Interest

Southern Culture; Criminology; Aging; Social Stratification; Ethnic Studies

Recent Courses Taught

• Introduction to African & African American Studies
• Criminology
• Aging
• African American & Hurricane Katrina

Awards & Honors

Oxford University Round Table Selectee
Outstanding Sociology Teaching Award

Notable Activities

• Conducting research on plantation churches and desegregation of predominantly white universities
• Active in major African American Studies and Sociology professional associations

Selected Publications

Books

• The Charity Hospital System of Louisiana: A story of Poverty, Politics, Health and the Public Interest
• History of the River Road African American Museum
• Plantation Society and Race Relations: The Origins of Inequality

Biography

DR. THOMAS J. DURANT, JR., a native of Mansfield, Louisiana, earned his bachelor’s degree at Grambling State University, his master’s degree at Tuskegee University, and his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His professional career includes Professor of Sociology at Virginia State University and Professor of Sociology at Louisiana State University.

He is a former Director of African and African American Studies at Louisiana State University. He is an author, entrepreneur, scholar, speaker, and community volunteer. He is the author of:

• “A View from the Inside…Thirty-Six Years of Desegregation” (DPC Publishing Company & Aventine Press, 2015), and
• “Our Roots Run Deep: A History of The River Road African American Museum” (Donning Company Publishers, 2002), and co-author of
• “A Stone of Hope, Rising above Slavery, Jim Crow and Poverty in Glendora, Mississippi,” DPC Publishing Company & Xlibris, 2017,
• “A History of the Charity Hospitals of Louisiana: A Study of Poverty, Politics, Public Health and the Public Interest” (Mellen Press, 2010), and
• “Plantation Society and Race Relations: The Origins of Inequality” (Praeger, 1999).

He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and received numerous academic and community service awards.  He is currently Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Louisiana State University and Emeritus Professor of Urban Higher Education at Jackson State University. He currently resides in Baton Rouge.