Doors open at 6:30 pm

Black Software showcases computing technology’s origin story amidst the turbulent racial confrontations of the 1960s, connecting it to the rise of the Black internet who helped to birth the Internet as we know it through the late 1980s and 1990s.

With The Franklin Lecture, Dr. McIlwain provides an opportunity to bring together the most significant takeaways from the book and arguments never presented in the book—but nevertheless connect computing technology’s past with the prospect of our future will and ability to make technology work in the service of racial equity and opportunity.

Book signing and reception to follow.

Copies of Dr. McIlwain’s book, Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter (2019) will be available for sale at on site through A Different Booklist.