Historians in the Community
2009
August
Cliff Kuhn has been named to the Global Advisory Board of the Center for Civil and Human Rights.
Ian Christopher Fletcher was interviewed about "The Coup in Honduras: Historical Background, Political Significance" on Radio Free Activists, the Monday noontime discussion program of Atlanta's community radio WRFG 89.3 FM, on 24 August 2009.
Ian Christopher Fletcher was interviewed about "The Coup in Honduras: History and Politics in Hemispheric Perspective" on Radio Diaspora, voice of the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center, WRFG 89.3 FM, Atlanta, Georgia, on 29 August 2009.
July
On July 12, at the Atlanta History Center, Wendy Venet spoke about her new book, Sam Richards's Civil War Diary: A Chronicle of the Atlanta Home Front. Afterwards, she signed copies of the book.
July 29 Cliff Kuhn gave an oral history workshop to members of the History Department at Fort Valley State University.
May
May 30 Cliff Kuhn gave walking tour of Auburn Avenue to program officers from state humanities councils from around the country, followed by a discussion of the centennial remembrance of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot.
March
On Saturday, March 28, 2009 Mohammed Hassen Ali was a keynote speaker at the Edmonton( Canada) Oromo Community celebration of Guyya Gotoota. The topic of his speech was " Haala Politika Addunyaatifi Qabsso Bilisumma Oromo."
Jacqueline A. Rouse was the keynote speaker on International Women's Day at First Existentialist Congregation, March 8, 2009. Her topic was "The Rhetoric of Gender vs The Reality of Race: Why is it Always on Me?". The discussion explored the historical relationship between black and white female reformers and leaders.
Ian Christopher Fletcher served on the Human Rights Atlanta work team that produced six hours of special programming in observance of International Women's Day on Radio Free Georgia, WRFG 89.3 FM, 8 March 2009. Among other things, he prepared the IWD 2009 FAQ about the history of IWD. This year marks the centenary of the original U.S. National Woman's Day and the fortieth anniversary of the revival of IWD by Atlanta activists in 1969.
At the invitation of the Atlanta-North Georgia Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and the Progressive Education Network, Ian Christopher Fletcher had the honor of introducing Mr. Douglas A. Blackmon, the _Wall Street Journal_ Atlanta bureau chief and author of _Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II_ (Doubleday 2008, Anchor Books 2009), at a public lecture and discussion about the book held in the IBEW Auditorium, Atlanta, Georgia, 19 March 2009.
Ian Christopher Fletcher and two History grad students served on the Human Rights Atlanta work team that held a workshop, "Getting Your Rights Straight: An Introduction to Human Rights," at MIST: Muslim Interscholastic Tournament, an annual event for Muslim secondary school students held on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology. He spoke about the history and nature of human rights during the two-hour interactive workshop, which drew almost 100 young people and their parents and teachers, 21 March 2009.
February
Of Missionaries and Militants: 100 Years of U.S. Involvement in the Middle East is a six-week series of community lectures presented during February and March 2009 by Gloria Calhoun, an M.A. student in history at GSU. These lectures, which incorporate hundreds of historical photographs, emphasize the European imperialist legacy and the Cold War context underlying the policymaking of successive U.S. presidents. Ms. Calhoun would like to take this opportunity to express her gratitude to Dr. Isa Blumi, under whose patient guidance these lectures were developed.
2008
December
Ian Christopher Fletcher was interviewed about "UDHR 60: The Sixtieth Anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights" on Radio Diaspora, the Voice of the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center, WRFG 89.3 FM, Atlanta, Georgia, 6 December 2008.
Ian Christopher Fletcher, Azadeh N. Shahshahani, and Janvieve Williams Comrie published a guest column on the sixtieth anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Human Rights Day Every Day,” on the Atlanta Progressive Blog, a project of Atlanta Progressive News, http://www.atlantaprogressiveblog.com/2008/12/udhr60-guest-column-human-rights-day-every-day/, 11 December 2008.
October
Allen Fromherz did a keynote presentation at the P Buckley Moss foundation annual conference in October in Virginia on teaching Islamic History and Middle Eastern Culture in the Primary and Secondary regular and special needs classrooms. The P Buckley Moss foundation is dedicated to developing curricula and resources for teachers of students with special needs.
September
On 19 September 2008, Ph.D. candidate Robert Brooking gave a talk about "Alleged British Brutality during the Occupation of South Carolina in 1780" at a Revolutionary War Symposium hosted by the Spartanburg County Regional History Museum and *Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution*. The talk, held at Wofford College, was very well attended by professional historians and "lay" people from throughout the South.
July
Ian Christopher Fletcher was interviewed about "Myths of Independence: The Fourth of July in Historical Context" on Radio Diaspora, the Voice of the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center, WRFG 89.3 FM, Atlanta, Georgia, 5 July 2008.
2007
November
Dr. Glenn Eskew and Dr. Cliff Kuhn recently served as the two lead historians on the History Channel's program "The States", appearing on the episode about Georgia. Watch for them on a television screen near you.
Dr. Glenn Eskew served as a consultant for The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis exhibit, “The Power of Children: Making A Difference,” that opened November 10, 2007. This $6 million dollar exhibit funded in part through the National Endowment for the Humanities contrasts the lives of three children who struggled against oppression. By considering Anne Frank, a Jewish victim of the Nazi Holocaust, Ruby Bridges, who desegregated the schools of New Orleans, and Ryan White, who fought misconceptions about HIV-AIDS, the exhibit enables people of all ages to confront discrimination. Using recreations of the Annex in Amsterdam where Anne hid, Ruby’s classroom in a previously all-white school, and Ryan’s bedroom where he spent many days prior to his death, visitors confront the confinement that hostility created. The exhibit is designed to inculcate values of tolerance and encourage people to follow the examples set by these three young, brave individuals and through understanding and volunteerism work to make this a better world. Dr. Eskew’s contributions as a consultant began shortly after the inception phase and continued throughout to the opening. See http://www.childrensmuseum.org/.
Dr. Eskew also served as consultant on an effort to nominate to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list the civil rights National Historic Landmarks in Alabama. His contributions involved writing the narrative that was used by the Birmingham Historical Society and the Alabama Historical Commission in its proposal that was approved for inclusion on the final list of United States properties recommended by the United States Department of the Interior to UNESCO for approval and designation as World Heritage Sites by the United Nations.
His other recent activities include:
- The writing and oversight of a current $5,000 grant from the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board to the Morgan County Historical Society to fund the Morgan County Bicentennial Project which is a survey of historical documents in public and private hands in Morgan County.
- The writing and coordination of a current $1,000 grant from the Georgia Humanities Council to the Morgan County African American History Museum to hire a consultant to evaluate the museum’s holdings and offering recommendations on upgrading the exhibits.
- As president of the Morgan County Landmarks Society, planning the Bicentennial Celebration for Morgan, Putnam, Jasper, and Jones Counties, Georgia scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, December 9, 2007, in the Old State House in Milledgeville, Georgia. The event is sponsored by the historical societies of Baldwin, Morgan, Putnam, Jasper, Jones Counties.
Dr. Cliff Kuhn has begun a series of short pieces on Atlanta and Georgia story for WABE Radio. Pieces broadcast so far include items on the International Cotton Exposition of 1881 and the Winecoff Hotel fire of 1946. The next pieces will be on the issuance of script to city workers during the Great Depression and the desegregation of the Univesity of Georgia.
Dr. Kuhn also recently attended a reunion of midwives, family members and health care professionals held at Thronateeska Heritage Center in Albany, Georgia as part of an ongoing film project. He is quoted in this newspaper article in the Albany Herald.
This spring Dr. Kuhn was named as Co-Chair of the Content Council for the forthcoming Center for Civil and Human Rights. Since then, the Content Council, which includes civil and human rights scholars and activists along with educators and museum personnel, has been developing a document that will inform exhibit and architectural design and the master planning process for the Center. The document includes broad themes, the overall narrative approach, specific stories to be told, and potential elements, ande possible presentation methods for each of the Center's galleries.
October
Jacqueline A. Rouse has been selected as Mentor of the Year by the Southern Regional Education Board. Headquartered in Atlanta, this foundation offers fellowships to minority undergraduate and graduate students. To date, five of Rouse's doctoral students have received the SREB fellowship in the last five years: Dexter Blackman, Charmayne Patterson, Tommy Bynum (Patterson and Bynum completed the doctoral program summer 2007) Derrick Lanois, and Karchiek Sims Avarado. The award ceremony will be during the national meeting in Arlington, Virginia the last weekend of October.
Dr. Chris Lutz spent "Hands On Atlanta" Day, October 7, with garbage. She and several others volunteered with RiversAlive to clean up Twin Lakes on the old Johns property in Tucker, Georgia. "It was enormous fun, because of the people in RiversAlive," she said. "They were the most multi-national and class-mixed group I've encountered in any community service project so far." Dr. Lutz pointed out that for the past seven years, funds have not been available for county workers to do much more than touch the edge of our environmental concerns. "Sure, we should protest the diversion of funds from humans and nature to corruption and the pursuit of war, but meanwhile, we can fix some damage," she said. "Plus, you make something beautiful and get a cool T-shirt."
September
On Friday, September 28th, the Coalition to Remember the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, for which Dr. Cliff Kuhn served as co-convener, received the City of Atlanta's Phoenix Award, the city's top service award. The award, signed by Mayor Franklin, commends the Coalition "for your dedication to commemorating Atlanta's tragic race riot. Your promotion of public dialogue regarding the riot and its legacy will surely inspire positive race relations and build a strong foundation for untiy within our community."
Ian Christopher Fletcher gave a talk, "What's Going On: The Movement Defines the Moment, 1969-1971," in conjunction with a community meeting on 21 September to mark Iraq Moratorium and explore the history of antiwar, anti-intervention, anti-imperialist, internationalist, and solidarity activism in the U.S. since the observance of Vietnam Moratorium in October and November 1969. Organized by the PH:ACTS people's history collective, the event took place at the Madratz Infoshop and also included an exhibit of buttons, leaflets, pamphlets, newspapers, posters, and other items from the late 1960s and early 1970s, protest songs by black and Chicano musicians from the era, and a wide ranging discussion among the 25 participants.
July
Ian Christopher Fletcher co-presented a talk, "Carry It On: The Past and the Future of the United States Social Forum," at the First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta on 8 July. The talk contextualized the United States Social Forum in a global history of transnational social movements and activist networks stretching back to the 1840 World Antislavery Convention in London, the women's rights conventions in Seneca Falls and elsewhere in the 1840s and 1850s, the First International of 1864, and the Pan African Conference of 1900.
This July Tim Crimmins will direct an NEH summer workshop for teachers. Glenn Eskew, Jacqueline Rouse, Cliff Kuhn, and Akinyele Umoja (from African American Studies) will also take part. Click here for details.
June
Ian Christopher Fletcher and other scholar-activists concluded a fourteen-month people's history series on Radio Diaspora (WRFG 89.3 FM) with broadcasts on the life and times of Latin American revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara on 9 June and the 75th anniversary of Atlanta's 1932 black and white unemployed demonstration and the Angelo Herndon insurrection case on 23 June. Plans are now underway for the PH:ACTS people's history collective to publish the broadcasts in a book provisionally entitled People's History: A Story in 52 Parts.
Ian Christopher Fletcher gave a talk, "Beyond the United States Social Forum: A Popular University of the Social Movements?," at the conclusion of a program organized by the PH:ACTS people's history collective entitled "Toward the United States Social Forum: Activism, Research, Theory, Dialogue" at Madratz Infoshop on 24 June.
Ian Christopher Fletcher co-facilitated a workshop, "People's History: Southern Crossroads of the Local and the Global," at the historic first United States Social Forum (USSF) on 29 June. Organized by the PH:ACTS people's history collective, the workshop attracted about twenty participants from as far away as Baltimore, Bellingham, WA, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and San Antonio. Held in Atlanta between 27 June and 1 July, the USSF featured 900 workshops and brought together some 15,000 grassroots social justice and human rights activists, youth and students, artists, intellectuals, and scholars. The USSF is part of the global World Social Forum process and the next meeting of the USSF is projected to take place in 2010.
Chris Lutz remains involved with the Tucker Historical Society during Spring 2007. She chaired the group’s successful Plant Swap in April, which serves as an annual community gathering and also raises money for history projects in the small town of Tucker. Dr. Lutz worked as a tour guide for the Historical Society’s Garden Tour in May. She hosted the Society’s annual Garden Party bash in June. Also during Spring 2007, Chris won the Bette Pothier Horticultural Award from the DeKalb Federation of Garden Clubs, which represents 1400 county gardeners. She is involved with the Georgia Native Plant Society’s friendly rescues of natives from the bulldozers of developers.
May
Ian Christopher Fletcher and other scholar-activists continue broadcasting This Fortnight in People's History on WRFG's Radio Diaspora. On 5 May 2007, the topic was the globalization of May Day from its U.S. origins in 1886 to its revival by the immigrant rights movement in 2006. On 19 May 2007, the topic was Ricardo Flores Magón, the Partido Liberal Mexicano, and the revolution in the borderlands of northern Mexico and the southwest U.S., 1903-1922.
Ian Christopher Fletcher gave a talk, "A People's History of May Day," at a community event at Madratz Infoshop on Saturday, 5 May 2007. His remarks focused on the origins of May Day in the United States in the 1880s, the globalization of May Day in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the significance of the revival in this country of the observance of May Day in conjunction with the immigrant rights movement. The program included the screening of a documentary film and the dedication of a memorial shrine to Santiago Rafael Cruz, a Farm Labor Organizing Committee activist assassinated in April in Monterrey, Mexico.
The Georgia Humanities Council has selected Tim Crimmins and his coauthor (Anne Farrisee, a graduate of the department's Heritage Preservation Program) to deliver the annual Humanities Lecture before the Governor's Awards in the Humanities. This will be held at the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot at 10:00 Thursday, May 10th. The Governor will be presented with the "first" copy of the book at the Awards Luncheon. Click here for details.
April
Ian Christopher Fletcher and other scholar-activists continue broadcasting ‘This Fortnight in People's History’ on WRFG's Radio Diaspora. On 7 April 2007, the topic was the life and vision of Paul Robeson. On 21 April 2007, the topic was Jose Carlos Mariategui and the rise of social movements and indigenous peoples in Peru.
March
On 28 March 2007, Mohammed Hassen Ali spoke about the history of Sudan and the crisis in Darfur at Charis Books and More in Little Five Points. He was on a panel organized by Amnesty International and the Global Rights Organization of GSU. The event was very well attended by concerned members of the community and a lively discussion took place after the presentations.
On 23 March 2007, Ian Christoher Fletcher and other scholar-activists in the PH:ACTS people's history collective organized a very successful authors' roundtable and booksigning on "New Histories of the Black Freedom Struggle in the Twentieth-Century South." The event celebrated three young historians and their new books: Mary G. Rolinson, a Georgia State Ph.D. in History and author of Grassroots Garveyism: The Universal Negro Improvement Association in the Rural South, 1920-1927, Winston A. Grady-Willis, an Emory Ph.D. in History and author of Challenging U.S. Apartheid: Atlanta and Black Struggles for Human Rights, 1960-1977, and Robert H. Woodrum, a Georgia State Ph.D. in History and author of "Everybody Was Black Down There": Race and Industrial Change in the Alabama Coalfields. A large, diverse, and very engaged audience from the community attended the event, which was held at Madratz Infoshop, an alternative community space, and co-sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center, Radio Diaspora and WRFG, and the U.S. Human Rights Network. Charis Books and More provided copies of the books for purchase; members of the audience bought some thirty copies and the authors cheerfully signed them all!
Ian Christopher Fletcher and other scholar-activists continue broadcasting This Fortnight in People's History on WRFG's Radio Diaspora. On 10 March 2007, the topic was International Women's Day and the global emergence of feminism and women's movements in the twentieth century. On 24 March 2007, the topic was the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador in 1980 and the struggle for human rights and social justice in Central America in the 1970s and 80s.
On March 9-11 Tim Crimmins led a field trip for 40 teachers from Cobb, Fayette, and Henry county public schools to Macan and Savannah to examine the remnants of the historical patterns of 17th and 18th century urban development.
On Saturday March 3, Dr. Alecia Long will be participating in the Louisiana State University Rural Life Museum's Annual Symposium. The theme this year is "Diverse Divertissements: Entertainment in Nineteenth Century Louisiana." Her talk, which draws on the research for her book The Great Southern Babylon: Sex, Race, and Respectability in New Orleans, 1865-1920 is titled, “‘Most of the Time We'd High Tail it to New Orleans:’ Leisure and Recreation in New Orleans Vice Districts.”
Between March 7 and 10 Dr. Alecia Long will be participating in the Second Howard Mahan Symposium at the University of South Alabama. The conference, which is co-sponsored by the Journal of American History is titled "Through the Eye of Katrina: The Past as Prologue." Dr. Long will speak about the New Orleans Demimonde and participate in a roundtable discussion.
February
Ian Christopher Fletcher and other scholar-activists continue their fortnightly broadcasts on people's history on WRFG 89.3's Radio Diaspora program. On 10 February, the topic was the 1934 publication of Nancy Cunard's Negro, an Anthology and black resurgence between the world wars. On 24 February, the topic was the 1917 outbreak of the Russian Revolution and the colonial and semicolonial world.
On 18 February 2007, Ian Christopher Fletcher spoke on "Amazing Grace: The Politics of Past and Present in an Historical Film" to the Key Sunday Cinema Club. The club of some 200 members meets twice a month at Landmark's Midtown Art Cinema in Atlanta to preview films in advance of their release. Amazing Grace, directed by Michael Apted and starring Ioan Grufford, Michael Gambon, Albert Finney, Youssou N'Dour, Romola Garai, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rufus Sewell, Ciaran Hinds, and Toby Jones, is a powerful drama about the English evangelical reformer William Wilberforce, his conversion to the cause of antislavery in the 1780s, and the successful culmination of his campaign to abolish the British slave trade in 1807. (The first college for African Americans, opened in Ohio in 1856, is named after him.) The title Amazing Grace recalls the famous hymn written as an act of repentance by the former slaveship captain John Newton, played in the film by Albert Finney. After the film was screened, Fletcher spoke about slavery, slave resistance, and abolitionism, the treatment of slavery and race in such films as Tom Jones, Burn!, and The Madness of King George as well as Amazing Grace, and the changing significance of slavery and empire in contemporary multiracial and multicultural Britain before answering questions from the audience for about an hour.
On 17 February 2007, Ian Christopher Fletcher spoke on "People's History: Principles and Practices" at the Alternative Media and Political Activism National Training hosted by the U.S. Human Rights Network, the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center, and Radio Free Georgia WRFG 89.3. His talk, summing up the experience of producing a people's history series for community radio, led to a wide ranging discussion. The three-day training, which attracted media workers and community activists from around the country, was held at the USHRN office in StudioPlex and the WRFG studio in the Little Five Points Community Center in Atlanta.
On Saturday, February 10, Tim Crimmins will lecture about the struggle for Civil Rights in Atlanta to 40 Clayton County School teachers and then lead a an all-day tour of landmark sites in Atlanta. On February 5 he was was co-leader of a tour of African American Civil Rights sites for Albie Sachs, Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and visiting scholars and faculty from Emory University.
On Wednesday February 7, Robert Baker will speak at the Margaret Mitchell House about his new book, The Rescue of Joshua Glover: A Fugitive Slave, the Constitution and the Coming of the Civil War (buy it here, or at your local book shop). Location: 990 Peachtree Street, 6 p.m. Admission $10.
On February 16, Isa Blumi will give a lecture at the British Institute at Ankara, in London on "Frontiers of the Ottoman World."
Ian Christopher Fletcher and other local scholar-activists continue to broadcast people's history segments on Radio Diaspora, voice of the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center, on WRFG 89.3 FM. From 30 December 2006 forwards, these broadcasts are fortnightly. The topics in January were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the black freedom struggle, and the antiwar movement during the 1950s and 1960s and José Martí and the struggles for slave emancipation and national independence in nineteenth-century Cuba.
Cliff Kuhn was recently interviewed for a TBS Story Line episode on the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot and its remembrance — anticipated broadcast over TBS, 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, February 10. Tune in!
January
On Wednesday, January 31, Tim Crimmins lectured at the Atlanta History Center to the new group of tour-guide leaders on the historic patterns of Atlanta development.
On 27 January 2007, Ian Christopher Fletcher delivered introductory remarks on "Whose Democracy?: Democracy in the South in Historical Perspective" and moderated a discussion on "What is Democratic Socialism?" The well-attended public meeting was organized by the Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America and held in the Friends Meeting House, Decatur, Georgia.
On January 13 Cliff Kuhn took part in a workshop at the First Presbyterian Church entitled "The 1906 Atlanta Race Riot: The Role of the Faith Community — Then and Now."