Join the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics as we host Eric K. Ward for a special discussion on white nationalism’s resurgence, and how we can confront it on campus, in courts, and in the community.

Eric K. Ward is a well-known speaker on issues of racism, white supremacy, and movements for racial justice and the executive director of the Western States Center in Portland. Eric has spent the last decade working at both the Ford Foundation and the Atlantic Philanthropies to combat inequality and promote the dismantling of institutional discrimination and other barriers to full participation that racial and ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples continue to experience in society. Originally from Los Angeles, Eric attended the University of Oregon, where he began his organizing career assisting in the formation of over 100 local human rights organizations in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming at a time when the white supremacist movement was engaged in violent paramilitary activity that sought to undermine minority rights and the democratic process in the Pacific Northwest. During this period, he was one of a handful of prominent leaders of color working to counter this new manifestation of organized hate and, through his work, successfully encouraged violent neo-Nazi youth to renounce racism and violence.