Dr. Bernard Powers ’72, Professor Emeritus of History at the College of Charleston, talks about his family background and growing up in Chicago, his path to Gustavus and experiences as a Black student there, why he majored in history, his PhD focus at Northwestern University, the significance of Charleston and South Carolina in the history of enslavement, the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston which he founded and directs, the city’s new International African American Museum for which he served as interim president, and the sources of his hopefulness.