Long-time Duke University history professor dies

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – Lawrence Goodwyn, a history professor at Duke University for 32 years, has died at his Durham home. He was 85.

Wade Goodwyn said his father died on Sunday after battling emphysema.

Lawrence Goodwyn founded the Texas Coalition, an alliance of African American, Hispanic, and labor groups that battled conservatives and registered Texas minorities to vote. In 1968, Goodwyn joined and helped organize a group that campaigned against President Lyndon Johnson’s re-election bid.

After earning his Ph.D. at the University of Texas, Lawrence Goodwyn founded the Oral History Program at Duke with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Goodwyn in survived by his wife, Nell, his daughter, Lauren, and his son, Wade.

Wade Goodwyn said a memorial service is planned for later this month on the Duke campus.

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