America is in the midst of a sequence of golden anniversaries: the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

For Gavin Wright, a professor of American economic history at Stanford, this period also marks a half-century journey from young civil rights activist to leading authority on the economic history of the South.

Wright's interest in the economics of the civil rights movement began in 1963 when, as a college student from a Quaker family, he chose to participate in a voter rights education initiative organized by the Quaker organization American Friends Service Committee Citizen Education Project.

Wright and 13 other students spent the summer working with rural ministers and local citizens to present workshops designed to increase awareness of voter registration and civic activism among the residents of Warren County, North Carolina....