Marcus Witcher explores the powerful role that black business men and women, entrepreneurs, mutual aid societies, and voluntary organizations had in shaping the success of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Long before national protests captured headlines, black Americans were building economic networks, institutions, and community organizations that contributed to the advancement of freedom. Dr. Witcher argues that without entrepreneurship and civil society, it is unlikely that the Civil Rights Movement would have been successful. Drawing on compelling stories and historical insight, Dr. Witcher examines the lasting impact of influential figures such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Madam C.J. Walker, John H. Johnson, and T.R.M. Howard, as well as organizations such as the National Negro Business League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Black Elks, and many others.

Marcus Witcher is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Economic History at West Virginia University where he also serves as Manager of Undergraduate Programs for the Knee Regulatory Research Center. He completed his Ph.D. in history from the University of Alabama in 2017. His first book Getting Right with Reagan: The Struggle for True Conservatism, 1980-2016 was published by the University Press of Kansas in 2019. Witcher is also the co-editor of seven edited collections and has been published in a diverse range of publications including: Reason Magazine, National Review, Modern Age, and The Washington Post. His most recent book, Black Liberation Through the Marketplace: Hope, Heartbreak, and the Promise of America was co-authored with Rachel Ferguson and was published by Emancipation Books in 2022. Witcher is passionate about the history of regulation in the United States. He has published articles on the connection between regulations and racial discrimination. His article "License to Exclude: Black Barbers in Arkansas," co-authored with Tanner Corley and Wendy Lucas, received the James Soltow Award for best paper published in Essays in Economic and Business History in 2023.

The practice of providing gratuities (i.e., tips) to service employees has come under a great deal of scrutiny and criticism in the past two decades. A few high-end restaurants have even tried to eliminate the practice of tipping the wait staff and replace it with a "living wage" for their employees. However, tipping has been a cultural practice that has been around for centuries in a number of countries and continues to hold strong in the United States. In this provocative talk, Anthony Gill provides three reasons why tipping is actually a beneficial social norm in many economic environments. He also addresses some of the recent technological and social changes that have corrupted the usefulness of this norm.

Anthony Gill is a professor in the Department of Political Science and adjunct professor of sociology at the University of Washington, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, and a Senior Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. He served as a research associate to the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University from 2014-17.

Prof. Gill specializes in political economy and religion & politics, with an emphasis on church-state relations, religious liberty, and religious economies. Additionally, he has become internationally renowned for his work on his defense of tipping (gratuities). He is author of The Political Origins of Religious Liberty (Cambridge University Press, 2007) and Rendering unto Caesar: The Catholic Church and the State in Latin America (University of Chicago Press, 1998).

Prof. Gill has also published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and was creator and host of the Research on Religion podcast series which ran from 2010-18.

Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, capitalism has unleashed unimaginable growth in opportunity and prosperity. And yet, at key points in American history, economic disruption has led to a greater role for government, ostensibly to protect against capitalism's excesses. Today, government regulates, mandates, subsidizes, and controls a growing share of the American economy. Based on his book, The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2025), Phil Gramm examines the seven events and issues in American history that define, for most Americans, the role of government and how the 21^st century world works. To many Americans, these five periods of American history, which include the Industrial Revolution, Progressive Era, Great Depression, decline of America's postwar preeminence in world trade, and the Great Recession, along with the existing levels of income inequality and poverty, represent strong evidence for expanding government in American life. Sen. Gramm argues that the evidence points to a contrary verdict: government interference and failed policies pose the most significant threat to economic freedom.

Phil Gramm has had a long and distinguished career in public service, academia, and the private sector. He served in the United States Congress representing Texas for more than two decades, first as representative for the 6^th congressional district representative in the House, then later as Senator. Sen. Gramm currently serves as a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He was Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank and is now Vice Chairman of Lone Star Funds. Sen. Gramm taught economics at Texas A&M University for 12 years before becoming a member of Congress.

Sen. Gramm's legislative record includes landmark bills like the Gramm-Latta Budget — which reduced federal spending, rebuilt national defense and mandated the Reagan tax cut — and the Gramm-Rudman Act — which placed the first binding constraints on federal spending. As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Gramm steered legislation modernizing banking, insurance, and securities laws. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act amended the 70-year-old Glass-Steagall Act, allowing banks, security companies and insurance companies to affiliate through a financial services holding company.

Sen. Gramm has published numerous articles and books, including his most recent book The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2025) (co-authored with Donald J. Boudreaux of George Mason University).