“‘Go Slow, Now’: The Free Southern Theater, Civil Rights, and the Racial Project of Black Patience” presented by Julius Fleming Jr. This talk considers how theater was vital to the civil rights movement. It explores how Black artists and activists in the U.S. South, namely the Free Southern Theater, used theatrical performance to stage a …

“Jonesland: A Legacy of Extraction and Survival” presented by Jazmin Miller and Anya Groner Jonesland is one of many historic Black communities along the lower Mississippi River, and like many free towns, Jonesland’s future, and remarkable past, is at risk. Southeast Louisiana, sometimes called Cancer Alley, is home to a quarter of the nation’s petrochemical …

“Whiteness in Crisis?” presented by James M. Thomas In The History of White People, historian Nell Painter wrote, “Being white these days isn’t what it used to be.” What, then, does it mean to be white today? Through in-depth interviews with white people living in the American South—a region where the nation’s color line has arguably …

“‘Jews, Heathens, and Other Dissenters’: New Perspectives on Race and Religion in the American South” presented by Shari Rabin The 1669 Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina anticipated the arrival of Jews alongside “heathens, and other dissenters from the purity of the Christian religion.” Meanwhile, the Code Noir, which governed French Louisiana, banned Jewish settlement altogether. Nevertheless, …

“Introducing the Southern Music Research Center” presented by Burgin Mathews Earlier this year, the nonprofit Southern Music Research Center (SMRC) launched its online archive: a searchable public repository of rare photos, rescued recordings, oral history interviews, and ephemera reflecting a deep diversity of music communities, expressions, and experiences across the American South. In this talk, …

“Southern Light, Southern Landscape” presented by William Dunlap and W. Ralph Eubanks In his essay “The Power of Place in Art and Literature,” the artist William Dunlap writes, “The one constant in American art and life is the land.” In this talk, William Dunlap and Ralph Eubanks will discuss the connection between the landscape of …