Slavery, Resistance and Community

If you did not attend the 5th Annual Slave Dwelling Project Conference, it is imperative that you click on the link to find out what you missed. You may want to print the content. There may come a time in the future when this information may cease to exist electronically. Please pay special attention to the sponsors that contributed to making the Fifth Annual Slave Dwelling Project a success.

If you were able to access that link, you saw that to bring any conference to the public, it takes lots of planning and many presenters with great content who commit their own or their institute’s money to make it all work. Pay special attention to the session titles to see that we insisted on choosing the presenters who would ensure that we were successful in expressing our theme for the conference of Slavery, Resistance and Community. Organizing these conferences is an even taller task if you operate a not-for-profit organization on a shoestring budget. This is my opportunity to thank all of those involved in making the 5th Annual Slave Dwelling Project a success.

It all started in a restaurant in a hotel at breakfast in Charlottesville, VA in October 2017. Board members of the Slave Dwelling Project met with Dr. Carroll Van West, Director of The Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University. We had just finished a successful conference in partnership with the University of Virginia. In August of that year, young White males carrying tiki torches marched on that campus saying hateful things about African Americans and Jews. As a result of that hate, Heather Heyer lost her life to vehicular homicide. President Trump declared that both sides were to blame for the tragedy. So yes, we were edgy and on high alert as we continued with the plans for partnering with the University of Virginia to conduct the conference. Together we delivered the best-attended conference ever, free registration will tend to do that.

But we pulled it off at the University of Virginia, our and Dr. West plan was to have a more robust conference on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University. I knew well of Dr. West and Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Historic Preservation many of my friends and colleagues graduated from there. Dr. West was the keynote speaker for the first Slave Dwelling Project that was held in Savannah, GA. Sadly, my only recollection of Middle Tennessee State University was Johnny “Red” Floyd Stadium. It was there that football player Marc Buoniconti received a paralyzing hit when he played for the Citadel Bulldogs.

Our vetting process and readily available resources yielded Colson Whitehead as our keynote speaker and the Fisk Jubilee Singers as entertainers. So, right out of the blocks, we surpassed what the University of Virginia did for the conference in the previous year. Slave Dwelling Project board member Prinny Anderson took the lead in the meticulous planning process for the Slave Dwelling Project. Assisting her were former Slave Dwelling project board member Donald West, my lovely wife Vilarin McGill and me.

Dr. West’s team consisted of:
• Torren Gatson: University of North Carolina, Greensboro
• Kelli Gibson: TRC Environmental Corp, Nashville
• Savannah Grandney: Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee University
• Laura Holder: Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area
• Kelle Knight: Center or Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University
• Tiffany Momon: Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area
• Antionette G. van Zelm: Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University
• Louis Woods: Africana Studies. Middle Tennessee State University

Our partnership with Middle Tennessee State University brought with it, the following sponsors: Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area; Middle Tennessee State University Center for Historic Preservation; Middle Tennessee State University, Walker Library; Middle Tennessee State University, History; Middle Tennessee State University, Public History Program; Middle Tennessee State University, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. 

The Slave Dwelling Project brought with it, the 1772 Foundation and lots of willing volunteers. 

I went to a pre-conference session title: Movement ’68 Symposium MTSU College of Education. There, I learned that a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest once stood on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University. Some of the older panelists were instrumental in getting that statue removed. The younger panelists are engaged in an ongoing effort to remove Forrest name from a building on the campus. John C. Calhoun, Ben Tillman, Silent Sam are not new efforts to remove names and statues from institutions of higher learning that some find offensive. 

After a year hiatus, artist Arianne King Comer again curated the artwork for the conference. 

The Fisk Jubilee Singers were all that I expected and more at the opening ceremony for the conference. Their melodious voices exuded the history of which they were founded as they entertained the audience with their renditions of old spirituals. As they performed, thoughts of my deceased mom began to occupy my thoughts. 

And what can I say about Colson Whitehead that has not already been said by many? He did not disappoint in his inciteful and humorous presentation. 

A special thank you is appropriate for all the presenters in which we managed to muster quantity and quality. My attempt to photograph some of the sessions only proved partially successful. I intended to go into a session, take a picture of the presenter and then move on. On every occasion, the presenter’s subject matter was so engaging that I listened to their whole presentation before I would move to another session.

For the second consecutive year, we included a sleepover at the conference. While our first choice for our sleepovers is always extant slave dwellings, finding one is not always the case. This played itself out in Murfreesboro. A thank you is appropriate for the City of Murfreesboro Parks & Recreation for allowing us to use Bradley Academy for our sleepover. Unlike last year, when we slept outside under a tent on the campus of the University of Virginia, Bradley Academy was a climate-controlled building. 

Prinny Anderson

BRADLEY ACADEMY, MURFREESBORO, TN – Education Now, Education Tomorrow, Education Forever

Bradley Academy was a school when it was started in 1806, and continues to be a center for education in Murfreesboro, albeit in a subsequent building. It started its existence as a school for white boys, and in 1884, it became a school for African American children.

The current building was constructed in 1917 and opened as a school for African American boys and girls in 1918. Today it is no longer part of the Murfreesboro public school system, but it continues to play its part in providing education. In this time period, when funds for teachers to take their students on field trips away from the city, the Bradley Academy Museum and Cultural Center serve to fill in the gap. The four museum rooms offer exhibits, text material and artifacts that tell children about important moments and figures in African American history, and show them sites and individuals key to the African American story in Tennessee.

The story of this school and cultural center is a powerful reminder of the commitment to education and to preserving history and culture within this city and its African American community. It was a privilege to spend a night where people are still dedicated to education and to history.

For our culminating field trip, we visited Fort Negley, Clover Bottom, and the Hermitage.

All involved in making the 5th Annual Slave Dwelling Project conference possible deserves a special thank you. Sometimes there are donors that you to put in a special category. Two such donors are Dee Mallon and Ken Potochnik. They donated frequent flyer miles which allowed me, my wife Vilarin and board member Terry James to fly roundtrip to Nashville, Tennessee to attend the conference in Murfreesboro.

Two hundred and fifty people attended the 5th Annual Slave Dwelling Project conference, the second most ever to attend a conference. I color that success. I am certain that in my thanking those who are worthy, I have missed someone. Please do not hold that against me.

We are in the process of planning the Sixth Annual Slave Dwelling Project conference despite not yet securing the funding, partners or entities to make it happen. We’ve stepped out on faith. The title of the conference will be Footprints of Slavery in the U.S., Before & After 1619. We will commemorate the first documented Africans who were enslaved in the United States in 1619. Additionally, we are asking all states to identify ground zero for the slavery that existed there. More to follow on this matter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5th Annual Slave Dwelling Project Conference