Race and New Southern Politics

For his PEP project, Wyatt participated in the Bass Connections Race and New Southern Politics Project. His project aimed to use a study done by researchers Donald Matthews and James Prothro, providing an extensive survey of the South’s racial attitudes toward electoral and social movements, protest participation, and residential context. Wyatt worked with his Bass team to compile Black Lives Matter protest data from the past two years alongside census and survey data to understand southern public opinion regarding racial attitudes, public policies, and political preferences. Specifically, Wyatt worked on a section of the project that looks specifically at Durham, North Carolina and Tuskegee, Alabama to see how the two cities’ large black populations live now in comparison to the 1960s. As a PEP fellow, Wyatt also completed a guide for any student interested in working with local NGOs dedicated to immigrants and/or immigration within the Triangle. His guide included contact information for student volunteers, descriptions of the local organizations, and an overview of the types of service work that Duke students might want to participate in. A conservative, Wyatt is also open to the idea of running for office though he does not have a specific plan for doing so.