Here’s an announcement about an upcoming educational event that I don’t plan on missing:

The UNC Asheville History Department is proud to host the first ever conference on the History of African Americans in Western North Carolina. The conference challenges widely held assumptions that the African American presence in Western North Carolina has been negligible at best. Presentations, by respected scholars in the fields of North Carolina History, Southern History, and Southern Appalachian History, will reveal the rich and vibrant African American past in the Southern Appalachian region. The conference is free and open to the general public.

Thursday, October 23, 6:30 – 8:30
YMI Cultural Center (43 Market Street, Asheville, NC)
* Reception and Keynote address by James Ferguson, Esquire
* Mrs. Julia Ray will be recognized for the may ways her dedication to family and community has graced our mountain home for 100 years

Friday, October 24, 9 – 5
UNC Asheville Sherrill Center (1 University Heights, Asheville, NC)

Morning Session: 9 – 12
Slavery and Emancipation in Western North Carolina
-Dr. John Inscoe, University of Georgia – Slavery and WNC
-Dr. Steven Nash – Emancipation and WNC
-Dr. LaGarret King – Teaching American History with All American Youth

Afternoon Session 2 – 5
Segregation and Civil Rights in Western North Carolina
-Dr. Darin J. Waters – Racial Uplift in the Era of Jim Crow Segregation in WNC
-Dr. Sarah Judson – The Civil Rights Movement in WNC
-Andrea Clark – “Twilight of a Neighborhood” Photography Project

Closing Evening Reception at 5:00

Sponsored by:
Dean of Humanities Howerton Professor of Humanities, UNC Asheville Humanities Program, Dr. Sophie Mills, NEH Distinguied Teaching Professor in the Humanities, The Wilma Dykeman Legacy, The Dean of Social Sciences, Office of the Provost, UNC Asheville Department of History, UNC Asheville Center for Diversity Education, The Interdisciplinary Distinguished Professorship of the Mountain South