About Me

Dr. Sekou Franklin is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU).  He is the author of After the Rebellion: Black Youth, Social Movement Activism, and the Post-Civil Rights Generation (NYU Press, 2014) and edited the State of Blacks in Middle Tennessee. He also has a forthcoming book (co-authored with Ray Block) called Losing Power: African Americans and Racial Polarization in Tennessee Politics (University of Georgia Press, 2020).    

He is currently the President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. He resides in North Nashville with his wife and two daughters. 

Since 2004, Dr. Franklin has worked closely with numerous groups: Community Oversight Now, Urban EpiCenter, Tennessee Citizen Action, Tennessee Alliance for Progress, Ad Hoc Committee for Equity, TennCare Saves Lives Coalition, Nashville Black Covenant Coalition, Justice for Jefferson Street Coalition, Green-Collar Jobs Task Force of Nashville-Davidson County, Nashville Peace and Justice Center’s Leadership Institute,  James Lawson’s Nonviolent Resistance and Social Justice Committee (also called the "Saturday Morning Group"), Operation W.A.V.E., Tennessean newspaper’s Advisory Board, and Tennessee State Conference of NAACP.  Currently, he is an instructor for the James Lawson Institute (JLI), which provides training in nonviolent resistance to activists, journalists, and organizers in North America. In November 2016, he co-coordinated the Tennessee Election Protection hotline in collaboration with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and has worked on voting rights cases. He received training in voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s Census and Redistricting Institute and the GeoData Bootcamp hosted by Tufts University's Voting Rights Data Institute.  He also served on the Tennessee Advisory Committee for the US Commission on Civil Rights from 2016-2020; and he serves on the coordinating committee of Democracy Nashville-Democratic Communities.