Memphis Center Conference

The Memphis Center at Rhodes is pleased to host its 2014 conference: From Civil War to Civil Rights: Race, Region and the Making of Public Memory

It is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and 50 years since the height of the modern Civil Rights Movement. It is thus a perfect time to reflect on how these moments – and the century between them – have transformed our history and continue to inform our contemporary experiences. Bringing together an unparalleled group of historians, writers, teachers and artists, this conference – sponsored by Rhodes College’s new Memphis Center - will explore these histories and their consequences. We will pay particular attention to the way that the public memory of both events and their interconnections have shaped our understandings of race, region, “the South,” citizenship and American identity. Through presentations and workshops, documentary screenings and musical performances, we will engage a wide audience in discussions of how the journey from Civil War to Civil Rights continues to affect our understandings of the past, present and future.

The conference will take place from Thursday, February 27 to Saturday, March 1. The conference is free and open to the public. All visitors, both from the local community and from outside the Memphis region, are encouraged to attend. If you plan on attending the conference, we ask that you please sign up on our registration page.

This conference is sponsored by the following Rhodes College departments and organizations: The Memphis Center, External Programs, Student Lecture Board, the Academic Dean’s Office, the Mike Curb Institute for Music, the Center for Outreach in the Development of the Arts (CODA), Communities in Conversation, the History Department, African-American Studies, Multicultural Affairs, Kinney Community Service, Archaeology, Urban Studies, Religious Studies, Anthropology & Sociology, and Political Science.

Thursday Evening (Feb 27):

Greeting and opening comments; A Taste of Memphis Reception and musical permformance by the Rhodes Jazz Band

Bryan Campus Life Center, McCallum Ballroom, 7:00PM

Friday (Feb 28):

9:00 - 10:00AM – Plenary (Kate Masur); located in Barret Library, Room 051

10:15 - 12:15PM – Papers (4 @ 20 minutes each, 5-minute breaks between each paper, exact start times approximate; discussion will follow the four papers); located in Barret 051 

10:15 - 10:35AM, Susan O’Donovan, "Citizens of the World: Globe-Trotting Slaves in the Age of Cotton"
10:40 - 11:00AM, Stephanie Rambo, "Architectural Reminisces of the South: Prevailing Symbols of the American Civil War in Natasha Trethewey’s Native Guard" 
11:05 - 11:20AM, Thavolia Glymph, "The Civil War in African American Memory"
11:25 - 11:45AM, Alison Tharp, "′History in the Makin’′: Alice Childress as Revisionist"

12:30 - 1:45 – Master Classes with Lunch

• Teaching Civil Rights Movement (Hasan Jeffries); located in the Catherine Burrow Refectory, Hyde Hall 
• Documentary Film & Creative Arts (Dee Garceau/Liz Daggett); located in the Frazier-Jelke Science Center, Classroom B

2:15 - 4:30 – Papers (4 @ 20 minutes each, 5-minute breaks between each paper, exact paper start times approximate; discussion will follow the four papers); located in Barret Library, Room 051

2:15 - 2:35, Barbara Combs, "Bodies Out of Place: a Theory of Social Dis-integration in the Post-Civil Rights American South"
2:40 - 3:00, Katie White, "The War That Does Not Leave Us: The Photographs of Alexander Gardner and Memory of the Civil War in Turn-of-the-Century America" 
3:05 - 3:25, Hasan Jeffries, "Memory, Movies, and Mythmaking: The Civil Rights Movement at 50"
3:55 - 4:15, Michael Henley, "The Long Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine, Florida: Reverend Thomas A. Wright, Robert Hayling, and Florida Memorial College, 1954-1963"

5:00 - 5:30 – Reception for Communities in Conversation Lecture and Conference Keynote Ta-Nehisi Coates; located in the Bryan Campus Life Center, Crain Reception Hall

5:30 - 6:30 – Keynote Address (Ta-Nehisi Coates); located in the Bryan Campus Life Center, McCallum Ballroom

Saturday (March 1):

8:30 - 9:45 – Master Class Breakfasts

• Oral History (Timothy Tyson); location TBD 
• New Approaches to Teaching the Civil War (Scott Nesbit); location TBD

10:00-11:50 – Papers (4 @ 20 minutes each, 5-minute breaks between each paper, exact paper start times approximate; discussion will follow the four papers); located in Barret Library, Room 051 

10:00 - 10:20, Timothy Tyson, "Thickets of Memory, Stories of Emmett Till"
10:25 - 10:45, Ansley Quiros and Anthony Siracusa, "Place and Protest: The Centrality of Nashville and Memphis in Civil Rights History" 
10:50 - 11:10, Aram Goudsouzian, "′That′s a White Man′s Statue!′: Civil Wars, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear"
11:15 - 11:35, Jason Jordan, "Inside and Outside Agitators: A. Phillip Randolph and Black Politics in 1940’s Memphis"

12:00-1:30 – Plenary Luncheon (Masur/Coates); located in Palmer Hall, Hardie Auditorium

2:00-4:00 – Selected Destinations for sightseeing/touring

7:00-9:00 – Special Concert with Bobby Rush at the Elvis Presley House on Audubon Drive (Space is limited - Advance registration required)