Linda M. Burton, Emerita professor and former dean of the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare, will deliver the keynote address at the “Path to Freedom” program on February 28 in Pennsylvania. Organized by the Centre County Pearls of Pennsylvania, the Black History Month event examines the history of the Underground Railroad in central Pennsylvania and its contemporary significance.
“The Path to Freedom” is meant to be more than a lecture, but also an evening of collective remembrance, cultural pride and community conversation. – Yahoo News.
The program traces local routes to freedom and situates them within broader histories of enslavement, resistance, and community formation. Burton’s keynote will place these histories in dialogue with her longstanding research on intergenerational family structures and the cumulative effects of structural inequality. Her work documents how historical systems of racial exclusion shape family roles, caregiving arrangements, and economic vulnerability across generations.