Dr. Kevin Boyle, recipient of the 2004 National Book Award for non-fiction, will give the Lycoming College History Department’s Ewing Lecture on April 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Barclay Lecture Hall, Heim Building G-11. His presentation, “Arc of Justice: The Sweet Case and the Course of Civil Rights,” is free and open to the public. Boyle will talk about a famous murder trial involving a black family that moved into a white Detroit neighborhood in 1925. He will also address the broader context of civil rights history, including the movement’s limited impact on racial segregation in northern cities.

Boyle teaches history at The Ohio State University. His work focuses on race, class and politics in the 20th century United States. His most recent book, “Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age,” received the National Book Award for non-fiction. He is also author of “The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945-1968” and coauthor of “Muddy Boots and Ragged Aprons: Images of Working-Class Detroit, 1900-1930.”

Boyle's articles have appeared in Diplomatic History, The Journal of American History, Labor History, The Michigan Historical Review and various anthologies. He has also published essays and reviews in The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, Inc. Magazine, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Boyle has held fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Fulbright Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. In 2007 he received Ohio State's Distinguished University Lecturer Award. In 1997-98, he held the Mary Ball Washington Chair in American History at University College Dublin, Ireland.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Detroit in 1982 and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1990.

The Ewing Lecture was established in 1973 in honor of professor Robert H. Ewing, who retired after 27 years at Lycoming College. A revered colleague and teacher, his life was characterized by a deep religious faith, a love of history and a strong dedication to a liberal arts education. These qualities touched all who came in contact with him and led his many friends to contribute to the Ewing Fund to establish this lecture series. Ewing died in January 1991.

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