Video conferences are available at 9 AM and 10 AM CENTRAL TIME.
REGISTER: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm
Time: 9:00 and 10:00 AM (CENTRAL time zone)
Targeted Audience: students in grades 7-12
Format: 45-minutes formatted into 30-minute presentation, and then 15-20 minute Q & A
Cost: $75 per site
Questions: Chandra Allison, at (615) 322-6511 or email chandra.allison@vanderbilt.edu
REGISTER: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm
1) Tuesday, February 2 - Dr. Frank Dobson
“From Slavery To Freedom: Stories of Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Harriet Tubman”
Join Dr. Frank Dobson as he discusses the dramatic, exciting, authoritative story of the experiences of these four African Americans from slavery to freedom to their continued struggle for equality. Dr. Frank Dobson will share stories of Sojourner Truth, former slave, abolitionist, preacher and advocate of women's rights; Frederick Douglass, publisher and leader who fought for the abolition of slavery and for racial equality; Booker T. Washington, born into slavery and dedicated himself to education, became a teacher, then founded Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1881; and Harriet Tubman, who was born into slavery in Maryland, then freed herself, and after freeing herself from slavery, returned to Maryland to rescue about 300 other runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad.
It is very hard for today’s students to imagine a time when people owned other people like property. By highlighting such slaves as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman, this videoconference will illustrate their courage, bravery, determination of spirit, mind, and body, and their absolute refusal to accept the bondage of slavery.
2) Tuesday, February 9 - Howard Gentry
“Breaking the Color Barrier”
Step back in time to the mid-1950's in the United States . Experience through this videoconference the amazing, historic, and terrifying time when schools for African American children were described as "equal" with those schools of white children. . . .but they were NOT. Think about what it would have felt like to be an African American student in an American school in the 1950's.
Life in America in the 1950’s and much of the 1960’s was segregation. It was two worlds that were afraid of each other. There were separate schools for blacks and whites, separate restaurants, separate hotels, separate drinking fountains and separate baseball teams. Discussion in this videoconference will include many areas where the color barrier was broken or moved during this time of cultural transition in the United States.
3) Tuesday, February 16 - Dr. Frank Dobson
"Life and Legacy of Paul Laurence Dunbar"
Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in 1872 to former slaves, and his mother instilled in him a love for poetry. He was a well-known author, a poet, short story writer, novelist, writer of articles and dramatic sketches, plays, and lyrics for musical compositions, and an elocutionist and entertainer. He is most noted for his highly skilled and graceful use of Afro-American themes and dialects.
Dunbar was called the greatest Black poet since Russia's Pushkin and France's Dumas. He was the single most influential African-American poet before Langston Hughes. Comparisons can be drawn between Dunbar's poetry and that of the subsequent Harlem Renaissance.
4) Tuesday, February 23 - James Nixon
"Musical Journey to the Black History of the Blues"
Join blues singer, James Nixon, for a musical journey through the fascinating black history of the blues. Your students will be clapping their hands and tapping their feet!
Blues is the foundation of jazz and strongly influences all popular music including country, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll. Blues continue to shape music worldwide, is still evolving and is still widely played today.
The blues evolved from hymns, work songs, and field hollers . . . . . from the music African Americans used to accompany their spiritual, work and social functions. The blues form was first popularized in 1911 by the African American composer W.C. Handy through the publication of Handy's "Memphis Blues" and "St. Louis Blues”.
5) Thursday, February 25 - David Mills
“Unholy: The Slaves Bible”
Meet David Mills, the author of UNHOLY: The SLAVES BIBLE. Mills’ book explores a relatively unknown work – a 201-year-old Bible planned, prepared and published in London for the purpose of making slaves in the British West Indies and justifying that their status was ordained by God. In the Slaves Bible, entire books of the Bible and many chapters of the remaining books of the Bible were omitted for the purpose of making slaves and maintaining slavery. Unholy illustrates this use and misuse of the Bible to preserve and justify slavery during hundreds of years of persecution.
Slavery became a “biblically-based institution” immune to abolitionists appealing to Christian morality. Who were these "slave makers" who saw themselves as devout Christians. . .and yet shattered the lives of slaves in the name of God and freedom?
In UNHOLY:The Slaves Bible, David Mills comes to terms with the evidence, the facts, and the truth as he challenges assumptions and shines the light on the truth. This is a landmark book that will provoke relevant dialogue and uncover uncomfortable truths.
Unholy is an important videoconference in the unfolding revelation on the long road from freedom to slavery and finally again to freedom. "The truth will set you free" and the truth in Unholy will challenge and begin to loosen the shackles that have remained through more than 500 years of slavery, humiliation, oppression, and degradation.
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See you soon!
Patsy
Patsy Partin, M.Ed
Director, Virtual School
Vanderbilt University
2007 Terrace Place
Nashville, TN 37203
