Forman to lead James Weldon Johnson Institute at Emory

Tyrone Forman, a sociology professor at Emory University, was recently named director of the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference.

Forman is an expert on race and ethnic relations.

He succeeds replaces the late Rudolph P. Byrd, who founded the institute in 2007. Byrd died in October 2011 after a long illness.

Forman will continue to build the institutes reputation as a resource on aspects of mode civil rights and race. Forman formerly directed the universitys Race and Difference Strategic Initiative.

Forman replaces the late professor Rudolph P. Byrd, who founded the institute in 2007, and quickly built it into a national hub of mode civil rights scholarship. Byrd, the Goodrich C. White Professor of American Studies and a renowned scholar of African American literature and culture, died in October 2011 after a long illness.