DR. KING AND THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION
As an alumnus of Morehouse College, Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘48 is the product of a rich and vibrant “circle of culture” encompassing the various places and means by which Black peoples examined, discussed and practiced education as a weapon in the arsenal of the Black freedom struggle. The Historically Black College and University (HBCU) as an institution reveals a broad and complex democratic space by which to examine the transformational educational, social, political, cultural trends and influences in Black life, as filtered through what we are tentatively calling a Black Liberal Arts tradition.
Conventional treatments of King’s life and work largely exclude his tenure at Morehouse College and ignore the transformative nature of the Black Liberal Arts tradition. His time as a student at Morehouse College (1944-1948) has received scant scholarly attention in the literature on King and the Movement. Similarly, there has been scant work on Coretta Scott, a liberal arts graduate in her own right, and King’s intellectual and political partner. We assert King as an exemplar of the Black Liberal Arts Tradition. Morehouse and other HBCUs placed the mission and vision of the liberal arts in the service of Black freedom.
As a student, King encountered, in a powerful way, the questions that form the basis of intellectual inquiry – questions of existence, identity, and place in the world. He explored these and other questions across disciplines. King was not alone in this experience. His experiences reflect a larger process that influenced and continues to influence generations of Black students.
The Black Liberal Arts Tradition serves as a doorway through which to explore the reverberations of this tradition as manifested in the work of generations of their alumni and the communities in which they lived and served.
SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE
**All events are at the Shirley Massey Executive Conference Center unless otherwise noted.**
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9
10:00AM - 12:00PM
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
12:00PM - 2:00PM
KEYNOTE CONVERSATION AND LUNCH
WELCOME
KING COLLECTION OVERVIEW
Dr. F. DuBois Bowman ‘92 President, Morehouse College
Dr. Vicki Crawford Director, Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection
KEYNOTE CONVERSATION: “MAPPING THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION”
2:00PM - 2:15PM
BREAK
Josh Myers
Crystal Sanders Panelists:
Moderator: Howard University
Charles McKinney
Rhodes College Emory University
**All panel sessions will be held in the shirley massey executive conference center.**
2:15PM - 3:45PM
PANEL I:
UNEARTHING THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION IN THE ARCHIVES
Michelle Hite
Panelists: Spelman College
“Archival Liturgy: Learning from HBCU Archives”
Shaundra Walker
Georgia College & State University
Aisha Johnson
Georgia Institute of Technology
“The Black Liberal Arts Tradition, HBCU Libraries and Archives & Black Memory Workers
SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE
4:15PM - 5:30PM
TOUR THE KING COLLECTION
Location:
Special Collections, Woodruff Library
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10
BREAKFAST ON YOUR OWN
8:30AM - 10:00AM
PANEL II:
TEACHING THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION
Tiffany Atwater Lee Archivist
Panelists:
J. Edward Hackett
10:00AM - 10:15AM
BREAK
10:15AM - 11:45AM
PANEL III:
THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION, RELIGION & THE FAITH OF OUR ANCESTORS
Rashad Raymond Moore
“’We Have Pledged Our Lives to Thee’: The Role of Memory & Formation in Black Liberal Arts Education”
William Da’Von Boyd & Mary Da’Von Boyd Southern University Southern University “King on the Relationality of Beloved Community & its Pedagogical Implications”
“Learning with Students: Black Liberal Arts Education in Citizenship Schools & Freedom Schools in the Long Civil Rights Movement”
Panelists:
David Justice
“Martin Luther King: The Intersection of the Black Prophetic & Black Liberal Arts Traditions”
Marlon Milner
“Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Make Us Steadfast, Honest, True: Pentecostalism & The Black Liberal Arts Tradition”
David Malcolm McGruder Baylor University Wesleyan University Wolfson College, Cambridge
“Martin Luther King, Jr., Political Theology & the Black Liberal Arts Tradition”
SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE
11:45AM - 1:00PM
LUNCH
1:15PM - 2:45PM
PANEL IV:
SHAPING MINDS IN THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION
2:45PM - 3:00PM
BREAK
3:15PM - 4:45PM
PANEL V:
THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION & THE ARTS
6:00PM
RECEPTION & DINNER
Panelists:
Leah Creque
Morehouse College
“The Evolution of Martin Luther King, Jr. as a Writer: The Pedagogy that Shaped Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Matthew F. Nichter
“The Morehouse Left: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Activist-Intellectual Milieu, 1944-48”
Kipton Jensen
Rollins College Morehouse College
“Philosophy at Morehouse College: From Mays & Thurman to Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Panelists:
Micah Harris
Duke University
“The Way King Works: Moving Among Peers & Inhabiting Stories”
Courtney Spencer
Lemoyne-Owen College
““Call and Response: Poetry’s Promise at an HBCU”
Corey Reed
Butler University
“King’s ‘World House’ As A Case for the Humanities”
George Pratt
University of Oxford
“The Black Liberal Arts Tradition as ‘Mystic Song’: An Aesthetic Exploration of Black Masculinities in Becoming & the HBCU Religio-Spiritual Experience”
SYMPOSIUM
SCHEDULE
Saturday, October 11
BREAKFAST ON YOUR OWN
9:00AM - 10:30AM
PANEL VI:
THE RADICAL EDGE OF THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION
10:30AM - 10:45AM
BREAK
10:45AM - 12:15PM
PANEL VII:
THE POLITICAL & HISTORICAL LEGACIES OF THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION
12:30PM - 2:00PM
Panelists:
Toiya Marie McGruder
“Balancing Black Capitalism & Social Justice: HBCUs as Laboratories of Economic Empowerment & Resistance”
Dan C. Castilow II
“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Morehouse: Radical Internationalism in the Black Liberal Arts Tradition”
Andy Hines Dillard University Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Swarthmore College
“Pursuing Radical Black Liberal Arts: Doxey Wilkerson & the CPUSA”
Panelists:
Robert Greene II
“Martin Luther King, Jr. & The Black Historical Tradition”
Adrian Harewood
“Boundless Frontiers: Reflecting on Leadership, Internationalism & Solidarity in the Black Liberal Arts While Charting the Courses of Martin Luther King, Jr., Ella Baker, Diane Nash & Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture”
Samuel T. Livingston Claflin University Carleton University Morehouse College
“Africa in the World House: Martin Luther King Jr., Pan-Africanism & the Black Liberal Arts Tradition”
THANKS; NEXT STEPS 12:30-2:00 FOR THE EDITED VOLUME.
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Corrie Claiborne, Morehouse College
Vicki Crawford, Morehouse College
Andrew Douglas, Morehouse College
Randal Jelks, Indiana University
Samuel Livingston, Morehouse College
Charles McKinney, Rhodes College
Charles Peterson, Oberlin College
Angela White, Morehouse College
THE SYMPOSIUM IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY:
Morehouse College
The Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection
The Morehouse Movement, Memory and Justice Project (Funded by the Mellon Foundation)
The Office of Academic Affairs, Rhodes College
The Institute for Race and Social Transformation at Rhodes College (Funded by the Mellon Foundation)
The Office of the Dean of the College, Oberlin College and Conservatory
The Africana Studies Department at Oberlin College
The Africana Studies Program at Indiana University
The Council of Independent Colleges
The American Council of Learned Societies
Thank you for your attendance.
Morehouse College 830 Westview Drive SW Atlanta, GA 30314 morehouse.edu