- Abolitionism in Black and White
9/30/2009
The University will join a coalition of historical organizations to host the two-day public symposium Abolitionism in Black and White: The Anti-Slavery Community of Boston and Cambridge.
Dramatic reading
The program, to be presented at the C. Walsh Theatre, will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, with a staged reading from a new play about abolitionist, fugitive slave, and author Harriet Jacobs, to be presented by the Underground Railway Theater.
A panel discussion following the reading, with Dean Kenneth S. Greenberg moderating, will focus on slave narratives and how to employ drama to communicate this history. African-American playwright Lydia Diamond of Boston University and Yale University historian David Blight will lead the discussion.
The Friday-evening program is free and open to the public.
Daylong program on anti-slavery movement
On Saturday, Oct. 24, historians James Oliver Horton of George Washington University and Lois E. Horton of George Mason University will open the symposium at 9 a.m. with an overview of the anti-slavery movement.
Harvard University’s John Stauffer and Sandra Sandiford Young of Boston College will discuss the significance of the abolitionist community – black and white – in greater Boston. Other sessions will examine anti-slavery music, abolitionism in popular culture and women in the movement.
Award-winning author David Blight of Yale will provide the closing keynote address.
Zoe Trodd of the University of North Carolina and state Rep. Byron Rushing will conclude the program with a discussion of the relevance of slavery and anti-slavery today.
Registration is required for the daylong Saturday program.