Huntingdon Professor Co-Authors Book

Montgomery, Ala.—Dr. Marcus Witcher, assistant professor of history at Huntingdon College, and Dr. Rachel Ferguson, economic philosopher and director of the Free Enterprise Center at Concordia University Chicago, have co-authored the book, “Black Liberation Through the Marketplace: Hope, Heartbreak, and the Promise of America.” The book, published May 10 by Emancipation Books, is available at Amazon.com and various bookstores.

The publisher writes, “Exhausted by extremism on both left and right, a majority of Americans—Black and white—love this country and want to do right by all of its citizens. In ‘Black Liberation Through the Marketplace,’ readers will come away with a better understanding of Black history and creative ideas for how to make this nation truly one with liberty and justice for all.”

According to Dr. Witcher, the book project grew out of a series of lectures Dr. Ferguson delivered to college students on ways in which civil society, and not government, had solved some of America’s most difficult racial problems. Because student demand was high, Dr. Ferguson began to consider compiling the lectures into a book. She reached out to Dr. Witcher’s graduate school adviser, Dr. David Beito, at the University of Alabama, who suggested she contact Dr. Witcher. “”I was immediately captivated by the scope of the project and believed that the stories she wanted to tell in the book were essential to the United States finding a way to address past injustice without jettisoning our liberal belief in the right to life, liberty, property, and the efficacy of markets,” says Dr. Witcher. “We began working on the book in the fall of 2019 and actually co-authored the entire book through the pandemic, without ever working together in the same physical space.”

Dr. Witcher says that he and Dr. Ferguson share a hope that the book will lead readers to recognize “that while there are some areas where government can, and must, make a difference when it comes to racial injustice, there are many more places where individuals engaged in civil society are the most important vehicles for meaningful change. [The book] is the story of how Black Americans forged voluntary organizations, created schools, became entrepreneurs, built businesses, and ultimately demanded equality in the face of state-sanctioned discrimination. The book also details the challenges we face today and offers solutions.”

Dr. Witcher joined the Huntingdon faculty in 2020. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Central Arkansas and Master of Arts and Ph.D. in history from the University of Alabama. His first book, “Getting Right with Reagan: The Struggle for True Conservatism, 1980-2016,” was published by the University Press of Kansas in 2019. Dr. Witcher is also the co-editor of the three-volume “Public Choice Analyses of Economic History (2018, 2018, 2019)” and is the co-editor of “Conversations on Conservatism: Speeches from the Philadelphia Society” (2021), with Dr. Blake Ball, Huntingdon assistant professor of history, and Kevin Hughes.

Huntingdon College is a coeducational residential liberal arts college of the United Methodist Church offering more than thirty undergraduate programs of study and 21 NCAA-Division III athletic teams. Huntingdon recently added a Master of Athletic Training program, the College’s first graduate program since its founding in 1854.

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