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
SYMPOSIUM OPENING
WELCOME & OPENING REMARKS
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”
Moderator:
Charles McKinney
Rhodes College
2:00PM - 2:15PM
BREAK
Josh Myers
Howard University
Crystal Sanders Panelists:
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
Moderator:
Tiffany Atwater-Lee
Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection
Michelle Hite
Panelists: Spelman College
“Archival Liturgy: Learning from HBCU Archives”
Shaundra Walker
Georgia College & State University
Aisha Johnson
“The Black Liberal Arts Tradition, HBCU Libraries and Archives & Black Memory Workers
Holly Smith
Georgia Institute of Technology Spelman College
“The Black Liberal Arts Tradition, HBCU Libraries and Archives & Black Memory Workers”
SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE
4:00 PM
4:15PM - 5:30PM
TOUR THE KING COLLECTION
Special Collections, Woodruff Library
6:00PM
RECEPTION & DINNER
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10
BREAKFAST ON YOUR OWN
10:15AM - 11:45AM
PANEL II:
THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION, RELIGION & THE FAITH OF OUR ANCESTORS
Moderator: Morehouse College
Harold Bennett
11:45AM - 1:00PM
LUNCH (by invitation only)
Tiffany Atwater Lee
Meet to get on the Bus to Woodruff Library Archivist
Location:
Atlanta University Robert W. Woodruff Library Exhibition Hall
Panelists:
David Justice Marlon Milner
“Martin Luther King: The Intersection of the Black Prophetic & Black Liberal Arts Traditions”
“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”
Location:
Shirley Massey Executive Conference Center
SYMPOSIUM
SCHEDULE
1:15PM - 2:45PM
PANEL III:
SHAPING MINDS IN THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION
Tanya Clark
Moderator: Morehouse College
Panelists:
Leah Creque
2:45PM - 3:00PM
BREAK
3:15PM - 4:45PM
PANEL IV:
THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION & THE ARTS
Moderator: Morehouse College
Clarissa Myrick-Harris White
5:00 PM
6:00PM
RECEPTION & DINNER
“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
Morehouse College 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”
Meet shuttle for transportation to dinner in front of Massey Conference Center. There will be two trips.
Location:
The Retreat by The Gathering Spot 1115 Howell Mill Rd., NW 30318
SYMPOSIUM
SCHEDULE
Saturday, October 11
BREAKFAST ON YOUR OWN
9:00AM - 10:30AM
PANEL V:
THE RADICAL EDGE OF THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION
Moderator:
Charles Peterson
Panelists:
Toiya Marie McGruder
“Balancing Black Capitalism & Social Justice: HBCUs as Laboratories of Economic Empowerment & Resistance”
Dan C. Castilow II
10:30AM - 10:45AM
BREAK
10:45AM - 12:15PM
PANEL VI:
THE POLITICAL & HISTORICAL LEGACIES OF THE BLACK LIBERAL ARTS TRADITION
Moderator: Oberlin College
K. Bitôn Young
Clark Atlanta University
12:30PM - 2:00PM
Andy Hines Dillard University
Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Swarthmore College
“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Morehouse: Radical Internationalism in the Black Liberal Arts Tradition”
“Pursuing Radical Black Liberal Arts: Doxey Wilkerson & the CPUSA”
Panelists:
Robert Greene II
Claflin University
“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”
LIGHT LUNCH; NEXT STEPS FOR THE EDITED VOLUME
Samuel T. Livingston
Carleton University Morehouse College
“Africa in the World House: Martin Luther King Jr., Pan-Africanism & the Black Liberal Arts Tradition”
Charles McKinney
Charles Peterson
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
Morehouse College Division of Humanities, Social Sciences, Media & the Arts
The Morehouse Movement, Memory and Justice Project (Funded by the Mellon Foundation)
Morehouse College Office of Strategic Marketing and Communication
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