Filed under: Charleston, SC, Emancipation, Jubilee Project, Slavery, U.S. Civil War, Upcoming Events 
Category Archives: Jubilee Project
Mark Auslander’s New Article: “Touching the Past”
Check out Mark Auslander‘s new article “Touching the Past: Materializing Time in Traumatic “Living History” Reenactments” in the open access journal Signs and Society.
Auslander’s article includes a discussion of the reenacted slave auction in the March 22, 1865 Charleston emancipation procession.
Abstract:
Many living history reenactors speak of “touching the past” in their performances. In nearly all instances, these profound experiences of intimate traffic with previous epochs and persons are brought about not through physical contact with historical artifacts but through deployments of replicas and props, including recently produced adornment, weaponry, vehicles, and tools. This essay explores the roles and functions of material reproductions or substitutes of historic artifacts in reenactment performances, and how these object-oriented practices often bring about powerful sensations of historic authenticity on the part of reenactors and their audiences. Auslander gives particular attention to the use of physical objects by those who seek to reenact traumatic events and experiences related to American histories of racial injustice, including experiences of slavery and Jim Crow racial violence.
Filed under: Charleston, SC, Emancipation, Jubilee Project 
Photos from CofC’s Recent “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” Event
Lift Every Voice Project to Host National Forum to Address the Challenges of Preserving and Teaching the History of the Civil Rights Movement
Lift Every Voice will bring together experts and stakeholder communities to address the challenges of collecting, archiving, presenting, and teaching the history of the civil rights movement. The national forum, with support from The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) will take place on May 14-18, 2013, in Columbia, South Carolina, and will result in a collaborative model and action agenda for libraries, museums, archives, and stakeholder communities which will be disseminated nationally.
There is a pressing need to collect and preserve South Carolina’s untold civil rights stories before a generation passes into history. South Carolina played a significant but largely unknown role in the civil rights movement. Time is of the essence in documenting the stories of elderly participants. Moreover, it is critical to help the next generation appreciate the struggles and the triumphs of this extraordinary period in our nation’s history.
The four-day national forum will bring together librarians, archivists, digital media specialists, members of the civil rights community, scholars, and educators to:
a. Develop a collaborative model for collecting, preserving, presenting, and teaching oral histories and artifacts related to the civil rights movement.
b. Develop a plan for utilizing the collaborative model to collect, preserve, present, and teach civil rights oral histories and artifacts in South Carolina.
c. Further develop the network of civil rights librarians, archivists, historians and other scholars, and educators in South Carolina to facilitate collection, preservation, presentation, and teaching of oral histories and artifacts.
At the end of the forum we will disseminate the collaborative model and information about the South Carolina plan to the civil rights and scholarly communities, including a national media release, a panel at a major national conference, and announcements through national e-networks for scholars, educators, and civil rights organizations.
The Lift Every Voice project will place learners at the center and support engaging experiences in libraries and museums that prepare people to be full participants in their local communities and our global society.
For more information, visit Lift Every Voice’s website.
Filed under: Civil Rights Movement, Desegregation, Jubilee Project, Upcoming Events 
Charleston-area Clergy Establish Charleston Area Justice Ministry, Area’s Largest Interfaith Community Action in Decades
The Charleston Area Justice Ministry (CAJM) is a Charleston-area interfaith community group aimed at at bringing people together across denominational lines. The group gatherings (the schedule for which can be found here) are gaining steam, with the last event hosting over 600 people. To read the full Post and Courier article, click here.
Filed under: Charleston, SC, Jubilee Project, Upcoming Events 
CofC Participates in International Reading of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
16 April 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
Thus begins Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” On April 16, 2013, fifty years after its authorship, thousands around the world participated in an international commemoration of the letter. Sponsored by Birmingham Public Library, the event included public readings in over two hundred libraries, museums, parks, churches, etc., around the world. At the College of Charleston, the reading took place at Cougar Mall in front of a crowd of about a hundred and fifty. For more information about the international event as a whole, please visit the Birmingham Public Library’s blog.
Filed under: Charleston, SC, Civil Rights Movement, Jubilee Project 
The Color in Freedom Experience–An Interactive Journey Along the Underground Railroad
The color in freedom experience workshops are designed to use arts integration and a positive, nontraditional methodology to talk about slavery. They will feature age-specific information and use the arts as a tool to engage in conversations about slavery. The workshop’s facilitators are History scholars and experts on the topic of slavery and the Underground Railroad who will utilize their decades of expertise to educate and inform the audience. Workshops will address each audience at its level.
All workshops will be held at the College of Charleston Avery Research Center, 125 Bull Street, Charleston. The workshops will take place on May 3 and 4. For more information, call Sheila Harrell-Roye: (843) 953-7613 or visit the Avery Center’s website.
Filed under: Charleston, SC, Jubilee Project, Slavery, U.S. Civil War, Upcoming Events 
Charleston County Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley issues apology to the students of desegregation
Nancy McGinley recently issued an apology on behalf of CCSD at College of Charleston’s commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the desegregation of South Carolina public schools, asking the first students of desegregation for forgiveness for the mistreatment they suffered during their education.
To read the Post and Courier’s full article, click here.
Filed under: Charleston, SC, Civil Rights Movement, Desegregation, Jubilee Project 
Join CofC for a worldwide celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail
On April 16th, 2013, the 50th anniversary of the day that Martin Luther King, Jr. began writing his Letter from Birmingham Jail, participants worldwide will read King’s Letter in celebration. Participants will host public readings from the Letter at various locations around the globe: libraries, museums, schools, universities, churches, synagogues, temples, work places, public parks, bookstores, street corners, coffee shops and anywhere people want to participate. Join the celebration! This event is sponsored by the Birmingham Public Library.
Locally, the event will take place at Cougar Mall on College of Charleston’s campus at 1:30 pm. For more information, click here. See you there!
Filed under: Charleston, SC, Civil Rights Movement, Desegregation, Jubilee Project, Upcoming Events 
African American Studies’ Ella Baker Day
Filed under: Jubilee Project 