Professor Donald Tibbs took part in a roundtable discussion focused on his recently published book during the American Studies Association Annual Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Nov. 16.

Drawing from Tibbs’ book, “From Black Power to Prison Power: The Making of Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners’ Labor Union,” the discussion explored the lingering implications of that case for current black studies and critical prison studies.

Tibbs joined Professor Tryon P. Woods of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Professor P. Khalil Saucier of Rhode Island College and Professor Rashad Shabazz of the University of Vermont for the discussion.

Tibbs’ book, published in January 2012 by Palgrave Macmillan, was praised by legal scholars like Alfred L. Brophy, the Judge John J. Parker Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who said it plumbs “the deep history of black power, especially as it relates to criminal justice.”