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Events Archive: 2018-19

19th Black History Month Lecture: We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting.

Description

African-American soldiers returning home after their service often encountered injustice and insult instead of honor and respect. At VCU Libraries' 19thBlack History Month Lecture, moderator Jeffrey Blount leads a moving and thought-provoking discussion about how our society treated African-American veterans after their service and how that affected them and their communities.

This event is free and open to all, but please register. Parking is available for a fee in the West Broad Street, West Main Street and West Cary Street parking decks. If special accommodations are needed, or to register offline, please contact the VCU Libraries Events Office, at (804) 828-0593.

About the Speakers

Portrait of Christy Coleman

Christy Coleman, executive director of the American Civil War Museum, was featured in Time magazine's July 2018 article "Meet the 31 People Who Are Changing the South." She will address the experience of African-Americans in the wake of the Civil War.

Portrait of Adriane Lentz-Smith

Adriane Lentz-Smith, Ph.D., associate professor of African and African-American studies and women's studies at Duke University and author of the 2009 book Freedom Struggles: African-Americans and World War I, will address the challenges faced by African-Americans after service in the military during WWI.

Portrait of Kiara Boone

Kiara Boone, deputy director of community education with the Equal Justice Initiative, will discuss EJI's landmark 2016 report, "Lyching in America: Targeting Black Veterans."

Portrait of Jeffery Blount

Jeffrey Blount (moderator) is an Emmy Award–winning television director whose 34-year career at NBC News included a decade of directing such shows as Meet the Press, The Today Show, The Chris Matthews Show and others. He is a commentator on issues of race and social justice and also an accomplished novelist whose latest book, The Emancipation of Evan Walls, is forthcoming this spring from Koehler Books.

Sponsors

This event is presented by VCU Libraries in partnership with VCU Military Student Services and sponsored by the Friends of VCU Libraries and the Francis M. Foster African-American History Endowment Fund.

Image: W.E.B. Du Bois photo, in public domain, Library of Congress, 1918/quote, by W.E.B. Du Bois, "Returning Soldiers," The Crisis, XVIII (May, 1919), p. 13