Navigating the Storms of Slavery: Restore, Reflect and Reclaim
An Introduction to the 2024 Conference
Welcome and thank you for being interested in Navigating the Storms of Slavery: Restore, Reflect & Reclaim conference. We are excited to host you at the LSU Lod Cook Alumni and Conference Center in Baton Rouge, LA. The LSU Dept. of Geography & Anthropology is convening this inaugural and international conference dedicated to the past and present impact of slavery in Louisiana and LSU. We are committed to organizing an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional conference examining specialized ways slavery permeated Louisiana’s society; and detailing the steps that LSU can take to further incentivize and establish best practices through its curricula, programmatic initiatives, and meaningful descendant community engagement. This conference will facilitate framing our history in ways that help craft the narratives to restore resilient growth of communities, and help resolve university and civic concerns while implementing early-stage planning for town and gown initiatives.
The role of slavery at American colleges and universities has been a focus of historical investigation and controversy. Ending almost 250 years of slavocracy did not end white supremacy, structural racism, or other forms of oppression at American Colleges and the legacy of slavery still persists in many institutions. We are also examining how other institutions have researched their histories and asking several representatives to share their best practices and guiding principles as they engage in truth-telling educational projects focused on the legacies of slavery and racism.
In 2006, Brown University became the first university to publish a report detailing its ties to slavery. Dr. Ruth Simmons, who was the president at the time, spearheaded this research venture. Over the following decades, a number of American colleges and universities followed Brown’s lead by making efforts to research, address, and teach about their historical connections to slavery. In 2014, a number of institutions led by the University of Virginia established Universities Studying Slavery (USS), an informal working group that later became a consortium dedicated to investigating institutional histories as they relate to slavery and racism. Efforts and calls to address historical connections to slavery and enduring racism at American universities were renewed in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd protests. Recently, the LSU Faculty Senate voted and passed the Resolution to join the USS Consortium, and Navigating the Storms of Slavery: Restore, Reflect and Reclaim is the inaugural conference that will address past and present issues as well as equitable change solutions to meet the needs of institutional and community populations.
The conference is being dedicated to Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Professor Emeritus of History at Rutgers University, who recently passed in 2022. Professor Hall wrote the seminal book, Africans in Colonial Louisiana (LSU Press, 1992).
Conference Schedule: February 8-10, 2024
Day I – Thursday, February 8th - The first day of the conference will foreground the effectiveness of Gwendolyn Midlo Hall’s work in harnessing impactful information on the institution of slavery and how it had a profound effect on many people and places in Louisiana and other parts of the Black Atlantic World. As a persistent, tireless, and meticulous investigator, she has helped us to understand the complex and often hidden past of slavery and to relate and see how applicable it is to today’s institutions and society. For these reasons we continue to call Gwendolyn Midlo Hall’s name and dedicate this conference in her honor to celebrate what she has given to the world.
Day II – Friday, February 9, 2024 - The second day of the conference will focus on speakers who will share best practices from their universities to address the need for acknowledgement, reconciliation, and a deeper understanding of the role the institution of slavery and enslaved people (Blacks and Indigenous) had in the formation and development of universities. The conference will commence the dialog and fill in some of the silences on LSU’s past history and the impact it has on today.
Day III – Saturday, February 10, 2024 - Field Excursion
A) Morning – Whitney Plantation Museum Tour, Edgard
B) Afternoon – River Road African American Museum, Donaldsonville - Genealogy & Activists Session
Come and engage with us at the conference then take in some of our Mardi Gras and laissez les bons temps rouler!!
Sincerely,
Joyce Marie Jackson, Ph.D.
Conference Coordinator
Chair, Department of Geography & Anthropology