Michael Thompson

Faculty: Michael Thompson

Michael D. Thompson, Professor of History
Chair, Department of History and Political Science

It has been an incredibly rewarding experience to teach at Pfeiffer since the Fall 2000 semester. My principle responsibilities include teaching the general education survey of United States History and the advanced and research courses in American History. Topics range from the American Revolution and Early Republic to the Civil War and Reconstruction to the Vietnam Era. The classes that I am especially proud of are the few that I have developed in tandem with professors in Pfeiffer’s Language and Literature department—The Civil Rights Movement and The American South. Both topics reflect my past research and ongoing passion.

Away from Pfeiffer, I enjoy spending my time running, watching English Premier League soccer, traveling, and volunteering at the YMCA of Greater Charlotte. All of these I am able to do alongside my wife, Molly, and my daughters, Elly and Sarah. One of my most significant accomplishments that ties together work and service has been the development of an educational program for middle and high school students in Charlotte called “Creating a Usable Past: A Study of the Civil Rights Movement.” In Spring 2009, while on sabbatical, through a partnership with the Stratford Richardson YMCA, I created a travel and learn program for young people. You are welcome to take a look at some of the many locations where organizers and participants have made an effort to tell our story.

Creating a Usable Past
This blog traced the partnership between the Stratford-Richardson YMCA and Pfeiffer University historian, Michael Thompson, as they seek to engage young people in the study of the Civil Rights Movement and ways to use lessons from the past to transform their present and future lives.