Gavin Wright is the Williams Robertson Coe Professor of American Economic History in the department of economics at Stanford University. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. in economics from Yale University, and he taught at the University of Michigan before moving to Stanford in 1982. He is perhaps our leading authority on the economic history of the American South and has also written extensively on natural resources and economic development. He spent the last year on sabbatical from Stanford as resident fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington DC where we worked on a book-length manuscript on the economics of the civil rights revolution. He will be resident at Carleton this fall from September 19 to September 30 as Headley House Distinguished Visitor, where he will be teaching a course on the civil rights revolution based upon his recent research. He will be delivering the all-college convocation on Friday , September 30.