Emory University's James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference has appointed a new leader.

The new director, Emory sociology professor Tyrone Forman, is a renowned scholar of social change, race and ethnic relations. He is helping to lead the institute's work to be a national destination the study and teaching of everything having to do with modern civil rights, race and difference.

His appointment finalizes the merger begun last year of the original institute and the university's Race and Difference Strategic Initiative.

Forman replaces Rudolph P. Byrd, who died last year after a long illness. Byrd founded the institute in 2007 and built it into a national hub of modern civil rights scholarship.

Tags: Emory University, Civil Rights