2019 Panel Descriptions

Panel 1. “Beyond Research: Practical Repair Remedies for Universities Studying Slavery”
Moderator: Felicia Davis, HBCU Green Fund

Jumoke Ifetayo, Henry Lancaster, & Dr. Guy Emerson Mount
This panel will continue from its presentation at the Fall 2018 USS Symposium held at Tougaloo College. This presentation will begin with offering a clear overview of reparations. After the overview, specific proposals will be offered including developing reparations think tanks, reparations educational programs and reparations activism to be integrated into the Universities. In addition, a specific proposal around sustainable investment to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) will be presented. Finally, there will be a presentation on the University of Chicago as a model for reparations activism to move from Slavery Research to Reparations activism. The call to action is moving Universities from slavery research to Practical Repair Remedies.

Panel 2. “Transcending Narratives of Trauma”
Moderator: Dr. Arthur Knight, American Studies & English, William & Mary

Frederick Murphy, “Utilizing Film to Better Understand Historical Trauma in The African American Community”
The presentation consists of 20 minutes of the documentary titled, The American South as We Know It, accompanied with the presentation. The film consists of specified experiences of the Jim Crow south by individuals who lived in various southern states during that time period. Historians, mental health therapist and educators lend their expertise on how the institution of slavery and Jim Crow was designed to oppress the lives of African Americans forever, but resilience prevailed.

Jeremy McGinnis, “Interrogating the Structures: Examining the Role of Theological Practice as Civilizing Force in America’s Construction of Race”
The history of the African American experience in America has been shaped by “civilizer theology” which draws on dehumanizing theological interpretations to support and justify racism’s systems. “Civilizer theology,” coined by Dr. Ibram Kendi, posits that the theological practice of white evangelical Christianity in America has served, and continues to serve, as a powerful civilizing force shaping perceptions and traditions that are considered essential parts of a civilized society.

Panel 3. “Seeking Abraham, Fostering Joy”
Moderator: Dr Brandon Inabinet, Communication Studies, Furman

Dr. Gregg Hecimovich, Logan Britt, Catherine Byrd, and Emily Little, “First Year, Writing the Ancestors’ Story”
Dr. Brandon Inabinet, “Independent Filmmaking with Black Geography”
Deborah Allen and Emilee O’Brien, “Alternative Spring Break and New Sisterhood”

While focusing within the student body, new faculty and staff at Furman University proceeded with the Seeking Abraham project, even while the trustees make their final determination of the Provost’s report. Specifically, the university has worked hard to create “legacies of joy” around African-American history that intertwined with the school’s history. This is key, as the majority students at the PWI still tend to avoid African-American history as a shame or guilt-inducing chapter in American history, a blemish on the founder’s record, and an aside from the work of “moving on.” Establishing the history and an inviting context for most students to learn it are the only paths to move forward. Panelists discuss work on two named slaves in university history: field trips to former campus sites that encouraged archival digging into enslaved persons’ identities, a graveyard cleanup to literally Seek Abraham’s grave, the recuperation of Clark Murphy’s story in digital mapping and documentaries, and an Alternative Spring Break to bring them to life. Each panelist will speak to the question of how these activities might form the core of a new co-curriculum at the university that shows students the power of vivid, accurate storytelling to begin shifting to trauma repair, liberation politics & theologies, and a new chapter in southern historical tourism, as these sites gain positive cultural value.

Panel 4. “Building Institutions, Building Power”
Moderator: Dr. Hannah Rosen, History and American Studies, William & Mary

Elizabeth Mejía-Ricart Guerra, “The Sustainability and Longevity of Pioneer Black Banks: Banks originating from black fraternal enterprises in Richmond, VA”
Motivated by the Race and Racism at the University of Richmond project, this presentation broadens the scope of stories of self-determination and resistance in the black community, documenting narratives from the city of Richmond. We were inspired by the success of St. Luke’s Penny Savings Bank as a source of empowerment for the black community of Richmond, Va. However, little quantitative research had been undertaken to determine the traits that set it apart from other black banks at the time, circa 1900’s. Using annual reports from St. Luke Bank and two other black banks that also originated from fraternal organizations in Richmond Virginia, the paper considers the research question “Why did St. Luke Bank succeed before the Great Depression?”

The Rev. Dr. Elwood Lewis, “The Origins of the Black Church and the Related History of the First Baptist Church of Williamsburg, Virginia”
This qualitative study describes the development of the Black Church from the arrival of African slaves at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, forward. This study is focused on slave life in the Williamsburg, Virginia, vicinity. The study’s conceptual framework is as follows: a) syncretic religious practices influenced slaves’ expressions of Christianity; b) with time, the slaves more fully embraced the Christian religion; c) slave owners legislated cruel laws to satiate their fear of slaves escaping or plotting rebellions; d) some
slave owners and non-slave owners encouraged slaves to embrace Christian worship; and e) the emergence of First Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Virginia, reflects 400 years of theological formation.

Steven T. Corneliussen, “What explains inattention to self-emancipation's preeminent historic landscape?”
Though historians increasingly recognize that slavery escapees catalyzed the Civil War's transformation into a freedom struggle, few voices tie that self-emancipation movement to its preeminent historic landscape: overdevelopment-imperiled Fort Monroe, Virginia. Concerning this lacuna, Corneliussen proposes to report on the state of scholarship and public commentary. The situation suggests a need for the spirit of Afrofuturism, which "reclaims ownership over black identity," says the Guardian's Steven W. Thrasher. It "blends the future, the past and the present." Could a Fort Monroe with fitting visibility deliver a comparable one?

Panel 5. “Preserving Boydton Institute: An African American School from Reconstruction into the Jim Crow Era”
Moderator: Dr. Lenneal Henderson, Government, William & Mary

Ann Keeling & Faithe Norrell

The Old Brunswick Circuit Foundation, a non-profit organization, is striving to preserve what remains of the campus of the Boydton Institute. The Foundation wants to celebrate the legacy of the Boydton Institute by preserving and using the Helensha Cottage as a museum-- highlighting the African American education that took place there from Reconstruction through the Jim Crow Era. This presentation gives a “virtual” introduction to three people connected to the Boydton Institute --providing a vivid impression of their character, their struggles and the impact that they had on the African American community.

Panel 6.“Constructing Home, Constructing Self”
Moderator: Dr. Adrienne Petty, William & Mary

Alyson Lindsey Taylor-White, “Early African Virginian Philanthropy: Lucy Goode Brooks and the Friends Association of Children"
When freedom came for Lucy Goode Brooks (1818-1900) and her community, as a mother, wife, and devout church member, she saw a need for something that up until that time had not existed in Richmond, Virginia. Formerly enslaved herself, she knew the devastating impact the slave trade had on black families and children. Her community activism would eventually help hundreds of motherless children who flooded into the former Capital of the Confederacy beginning in 1865. Her efforts resulted in the first orphanage for black children in Richmond. The city of Richmond deeded a lot to the organization in 1867, and the Friends Asylum for Colored Orphans was incorporated in March 1872.

IBe' Bulinda Crawley, “The ‘Her Story’”
The ‘Her Story’ is a performance that makes the invisible visible, while rescuing and reclaiming real lived experiences, in the oral tradition. The women (runaways, manumitted, and those entrusted with the keys), from Angola to Tidewater, Virginia, and their relations with Founding Fathers, as well as the ‘fancy girls’ of Shockoe Bottom, they all had a story. The ‘Her Story’ presents stories that span and overlap from 1619- 1919. An un-romanticized, monumental performance of stories that give voices to intimate and invisible spaces, while it commemorates the black woman’s resilience, resistance, and relationships that endure sickness, sales and separation.

Panel 7. “A Legacy of Family: Disrupted and Rebuilt”
Moderator: Zann Nelson, History Quest

Ric Murphy, “A Case Study: The U.S. Middle Passage and the Arrival of the First Documented Africans”
Zann Nelson, “The Domestic Slave Trade: the forced migration of more than one million people: A Case Study”
Mary Helen Thompson, “The Post Emancipation Migration North: A Case Study”

Three massive physical relocations between 1619 and 1900 were perpetrated upon Africans and those of African descent: the first, the Atlantic Slave Trade, to what would become the United States of America and the second and third within the boundaries of the same country: The Domestic Slave Trade and the Post Emancipation Migration to the Northern states. Two of these upheavals of routine, family and known world were categorically forced and unnatural. The third could be described as disruptive and coerced but in most cases voluntary. The panel will describe the three relocation events briefly reviewing the causes that precipitated them including economics, politics and culture. Each presenter will then illustrate through documentation and case history the outcomes on the persons involved and their families. The review of outcomes will include health issues, family cohesion and personal autonomy drawing conclusions as to the continuing impact on current-day lives and the value of the known family

Panel 8. “Reconciliation through Public History”
Moderator: Dr. Jeffrey Klee, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Dr. Woody Register and Tanner Potts, “Within the Pale of the Plantation States: Using Interactive Digital Humanities Strategies to Demonstrate Slavery’s Importance to the Founding of a Southern University”
The University of the South, also known as Sewanee, recently has undertaken a comprehensive initiative, the Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation, which is investigating the role of slavery and its legacies in its pre-Civil War founding and post-war history. The Project’s research has shown that the Episcopal Church leaders who launched the campaign with financial commitments from many of the region’s most powerful planters and statesmen expressly designed their university to be slavery’s university – an institution to protect and promote a civilization based on bondage. To engage the broadest audience, including skeptical alumni, the Sewanee Project has begun developing a series of maps, interactive by design, using GIS technology to profile and examine the university’s earliest generation of organizers and boosters in light of their connections with and investments in slavery. This presentation will examine the usefulness of this mapping project, which, with its interactive links to census data and slave schedules, invites Sewanee’s stakeholders to see the antebellum South in a new light and to investigate for themselves what it meant in 1860 for their university to be built “within the pale” of a slave society.

Dr. Juan Garibay, Christian P.L. West, and Christopher L. Mathis, “A University’s Legacy with Slavery and Implications for Constructing Inclusive Climates: Evidence from a Pilot Study”
While many institutions have begun the process of acknowledging their involvement in colonial era slavery, prior research has primarily been historical and has yet to comprehensively explore how this institutional context plays a role in contemporary black student experiences. This study uses data collected from a pilot study at an institution currently investigating its relationship with enslaved laborers to explore how a university’s historical relationship with slavery relates to black students’ college experiences. This presentation examines black students’ academic and social engagement with this history, their perception of faculty and white students’ engagement in this history, its impact on their educational experiences and emotional well-being, as well as their support or opposition to various amends. The preliminary results illuminate some racial power dynamics at play with respect to how this critical history is not addressed by all faculty at this institution and how black students tend to speak with other students of color about this history as opposed to faculty or white students.

Kelly M. Westfield, “An 1812 Jail Record and the Incarceration of the Enslaved: Challenging Slavery Myths with Historical Documents in Savannah, Georgia”
This presentation will reveal the details of a Savannah jail record of 1812 documenting the incarceration of an enslaved carpenter named Ned who once lived and worked at the Davenport House. By examining this record, she will address the following questions: How can the document and others like it be utilized as powerful interpretive tools? How does the jail record counteract misinformation about slavery? How does the document spark meaningful conversations about Ned’s life and the collective experience of slavery?

Paige Elizabeth Watts, “Loud Money: a Mural Shouting Students’ Concerns”
This presentation provides context of the mural, Loud Money, therefore explaining its importance and contemporary relevance. Loud Money depicts a person of color screaming for money to stop being funded to ‘Silent Sam,’ which is ignored; this speaks to many years of disregard to people of color for their comfort and safety in the United States, especially in the South, and the historical promotion of white supremacist values and an anti-black history. This relates directly to the Lemon Project’s symposium themes as it addresses black resistance and lack of institutional change in relation to Confederate monuments. The artist Abney channels her own black resistance, as well as those of UNC students, to criticize the University’s neglect of students of color on campus through an intense visual medium.

Panel 9. “Objects and Places: Telling the Truth and its Consequences”
Moderator: Dr. Carroll Van West, Middle Tennessee State University

Katherine C. Hughes, Dr. Torren Gatson, Tiffany Momon

This panel brings together individuals with experience in museums, preservation, material culture, architecture, archaeology, genealogy, and public history, and focus on the issues of teaching and sharing with the public, and with each other, African and African American history, from the seventeenth century onwards. This panel brings another aspect of legacies of resistance through objects and architecture (resistance through literacy, artistry, and valuable skills in both the Edgefield stoneware tradition and in
the story of John “Quash” Williams); it will also ask who owns these legacies, and how should they be shared, if at all? What is the role of researchers and professionals in a community? The panel will also discuss moving forward in 2019 and ask if museums and classrooms have a role in the reconciliation of trauma (and if that is even possible). How can we successfully tell the full history and truth in museum, public history, and classroom settings? What constitutes this being successful?

Panel 10. “Four Hundred Years of Black Community in the Peninsula”
Moderator: Dr. Susan A. Kern, Historic Campus & History Department, William & Mary

Josue Nieves, “Accounting for the "Things" left behind: A Report on the Lemon Project's Archaeological Database, Year 1”
At this academic year, Lemon Project staff began a major cross-disciplinary endeavor aimed at researching the archaeology of W&M’s past slave communities. Collaborating with the Anthropology graduate program and Historic Campus Office, the Lemon Project has begun construction of a centralized database that synthesizes extent data pertaining to all archaeological excavations conducted on university property. Artifact inventories, excavation reports, field notes, and photo-imagery are some of the vast sources considered in the LP’s effort to create a GIS database. This presentation will summarize the results of preliminary efforts at GIS construction, discuss challenges, and illuminate the potential contributions this project has on future institutional history research.

Burnell K. Irby, Keith E. Irby, & Carol Miller, “Picking Up the Pieces: Rippon Hall to Grove”
This presentation traces the path to recovery of family members from the trauma of the loss of their homes and community and the suddenness of their removal due to the “war effort.” Using letters, photographs, and newspaper articles, they will describe the community and some its residents. They will trace them as they make their way through the legal, financial, and emotional trauma of having their lives turned upside down. They will see their established community rendered extinct.

Zach Meredith, “Urban renewal in Virginia’s colonial capital: contextualizing the Williamsburg Redevelopment & Housing Authority”
This presentation explores the impact of Williamsburg’s local public housing agency on the development and demographics of Williamsburg. Paying attention to the displacements of the area’s Black communities during the 20th century caused by federal military installations and Colonial Williamsburg, he traces the rise of professional city planning in Williamsburg—largely serving the interests of Colonial Williamsburg and William & Mary—alongside the racialization of housing as a political issue.

Ric Murphy, “1619: The Story of America’s First Africans”
Mr. Murphy will share his extensive findings from his upcoming book, 1619: The Story of America’s First Africans, and divulge the identities of the first documented Africans and their documented legal status within the colony. In his presentation he will (a) provide contextual concept of how European colonialism impacted Africa; (b) explain where the “20 and Odd Africans” came from and how we know it; (c) document how the “20 and Odd Africans” came to British North America; (d) prove that the “20 and Odd Africans” and early colonial Africans were not enslaved people; (e) discuss the historical importance of the “20 and Odd Africans” and why we each should celebrate their historic contributions; and (f) the importance to the William and Mary community.

Panel 11. “Critical Commemoration”
Moderator: Ravynn Stringfield, Lemon Project American Studies Graduate Assistant

Brendon Boylan & Sharon Kim, “400 Years: Remembrance, Reparations, and Reconciliation”
Kelsey Wright, Ahlexus Bailey, Abigail Fitzsimmons, “A Century of Coeducation”
Isabella Lovain, Jioni Tuck, Kamryn Morris, “Creating Community Spaces: A Legacy of African Americans at William and Mary”
Angela Rose West & Emily Maison, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling”
Meg Jones & Matthew Thompson, “Memorials and Their Significance on College Campuses”

The goal of this year’s Branch-Out Alternative Break public history project was to add to the history of the College by thinking through what it means to be a part of the University community at such important junctures in history, for example, the 50th anniversary of African Americans at W&M, the 100th anniversary of coeducation at W&M, the election of the first woman President of the College, the commemoration of 1619, and the installation of a memorial to the enslaved at W&M.

Panel 12. “Dismantling a Jim Crow Archive: Reimagining our Responsibility to Surfacing Black Lives”
Moderator: Jay Gaidmore, Special Collections, Earl Gregg Swem Library, William & Mary

Laura Hart, “The Problem of a Jim Crow Archive”
Chaitra Powell, “Dismantling a Jim Crow Archive: the Why”
Lydia Neuroth, “Dismantling a Jim Crow Archive: the How”

The four hundredth anniversary of the first arrival of Africans in America encourages us at Wilson Special Collections Library to reflect on the abundance of material in our archives documenting the history of slavery in the American South. It is a moment that prompts us to embrace our responsibility as the stewards of collections representing historic crimes against humanity. Founded in the Jim Crow era, the Southern Historical Collection began as an archive of Southern plantation records owned by white
slaveholding elites. Today, it holds nearly 6,000 collections and well over twenty million items. The ways in which we collect and describe our collections have changed, but rigid organization and exclusionary language persists obstructing our patrons from the stories of those who were historically marginalized or denied agency over their lives. At this crucial moment of reflection, we ask ourselves: what responsibility do we have to revealing their stories? And where do we begin? We are exploring sustainable tools and
strategies that uncover the mystery of researching these materials. Deeper engagement is a prime opportunity to build bridges between diverse archival institutions and recognize our shared mission. We value the input of our archival peers and desperately need the collaboration of our users. This four hundredth anniversary is not simply time for reflection; it is time for action. We pose this call to ourselves, as well as others in the archival field, recognizing our social and moral obligations to the public good.

Panel 13. “Moving Histories: Untold Stories from the South”
Moderator: Dr. Jerry Watkins III, History, William & Mary

Dr. Eugene DeFriest Bétit, “Civil war heroism of African American soldiers, their performance on the battlefield, and evaluations of their service”
This presentation elaborates on the theme: US Colored Troops’ and Black Sailors’ contributions decisively tipped the course of the Civil War, but this major contribution was completely erased from public consciousness within decades due to factors that he will enumerate. Authorized by the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, the recruitment of colored troops began in March 1863 and by war’s end United States Colored Troops comprised roughly 180,000 men organized into 175 regiments of infantry, cavalry, artillery and engineers. This presentation focuses on the performance of colored soldiers and evaluations of their service.

LaTika J. Lee, “Native Sons: The Impact of The Great War on Gullah Culture”
More than 350,000 African Americans served their country in World War I, proving their bravery and patriotism. This presentation explores the worlds of four African American men who were uprooted from their tight-knit, Gullah/Geechee communities to fight overseas in World War I to defend freedoms they were denied in the United States. Through primary records and photographs, oral history and a historical traveling trunk, this presentation will examine the symposium’s theme black memory and how their experience as soldiers contributed to constructing a diverse America. It will also analyze black migration patterns to study the movement of people of African descent to new destinations and how they shaped a new era of social, political, cultural, and economic change.

Steven D. Gayle, “Unraveling the Spiral: Epistemic Entanglements within the Study Afro- Amerindian Heritage in the Southeastern United States”
This presentation will explore the various means by which African American and Native American intermingling in the South occurred, ranging from the institution of slavery to the overlapping of free communities of color. It will also open a discussion concerning the epistemological stances surrounding the creation, implementation and study of these groups’ respective racial classifications. This presentation ultimately addresses the legacies of two often marginalized people groups and postulates a framework to understand and address their interconnected existences.

Linda Quarles Arencibia, “Through a Glass Darkly: African American Presence in Horsemanship”
This presentation addresses the legacy of African American horsemanship – examining the history and impact, indeed, presence of Black horsemen in American culture. This work broadens the discussion of Black horsemanship and its place and treatment in North American historical understanding and identity and recognizes it as a rich legacy with capacity to construct a dynamic future. Using archival data, oral histories, visuals, biographical sketches, and anecdotes, this work argues that a strong African American presence existed at the genesis of equestrian activity in the United States and was central to the development of the horse industry.

Panel 14. “Learning from the Bray School: An Interdisciplinary Approach”
Moderator: Dr. Terry Meyers, Chancellor Professor of English, Emeritus, William &
Mary

Dr. Antonio T. Bly, “Class of 1760: Gowan Pamphlet and the Early African American Literacy Tradition”
Nicole Brown, “Teaching Visitors About Religion, Slavery, and Education as Ann Wager”
Dr. Julie Richter, “Education and the Bee Family of Williamsburg”

The panel proposed by Antonio T. Bly, Nicole Brown, and Julie Richter will focus on the Williamsburg Bray School that operated between 1760 and 1774 to learn about the role of literacy in the city’s enslaved community. Under the direction of Ann Wager, the schoolmistress, enslaved boys and girls as well as free children of color learned how to read and write and received instruction in proper behavior and diction. It is clear, however, that these students used their literacy skills in other ways. In his paper, Bly will focus on Gowan Pamphlet, a Bray School student who led a Baptist Congregation that met in Williamsburg. Next, Richter’s paper will look at the role of education and literacy for free black and enslaved members of the Bee family. Extant records include details about how Isaac, Joanna, and Clara Bee used their ability to read and write. Finally, Brown will talk about the ways in which she educates Colonial Williamsburg’s visitors about religion, slavery, and literacy in her portrayal of Ann Wager. Together, the panelists will highlight the impact of literacy to enslaved men, women, and children in eighteenth-century Williamsburg.