FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Michael Fauntroy, national media commentator and civil rights analyst, will discuss “Obama’s First 100 Days” at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 16, in Giffels Auditorium, Old Main. His lecture is free and open to the public.

Fauntroy, an assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University, is the author of Republicans and the Black Vote in which he analyzes the historical relationship between African Americans and the GOP. He is also the author of Home Rule or House Rule? Congress and the Erosion of Local Governance in the District of Columbia. He is currently researching a book on civil rights enforcement during the George W. Bush administration.

A regular contributor to The Huffington Post, he has been published in The Washington Times, TomPaine.com, The Black Commentator, The Chicago Defender, and The Root. He has been quoted widely in print publications such as The Washington Post, USA Today, Newsday, Black Enterprise, The Washington Times, the New York Daily News, and the Boston Globe.

Fauntroy is a weekly contributor to “The Cliff Kelley Show” on WVON-AM in Chicago and has been heard or seen on national radio and television networks such as ABC (World News Tonight), CBS (Evening News and Saturday Early Show), CNN (American Morning), MSNBC (Hardball), Fox News (Hannity and Colmes), NBC (Nightly News and Today), Comcast (Your Morning), National Public Radio (Talk of the Nation, Tell Me More, and News and Notes), Radio One, the British Broadcasting Corp., the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Pacifica Radio, and XM Satellite Radio.

At George Mason University, he teaches courses in civil rights policy and American government and specializes in race and American politics. Prior to joining the faculty there, he was an analyst in American national government at the Congressional Research Service, where he provided research and consultations for members and committees of Congress. From 1993 to 1996, he was a civil rights analyst at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, where he conducted research on major civil rights issues.

Fauntroy is a graduate of Hampton University, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science. He earned a master’s degree in public affairs, specializing in public administration and public policy analysis, and a doctorate in political science from Howard University. A fourth-generation Washingtonian, Michael resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife Lisa and twins Sunshine and Brett.

His visit is being sponsored by the Xi Foundation of Kappa Sigma and the African American studies program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.