Marines storm the Armory Fire-Enginehouse
Harpers Ferry Historical Association Home > John Brown's 1859 Raid > John Brown Remembered > October 15

Academic Symposium Schedule

October 15, 2009

MORNING

7:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. – Harpers Ferry Park shuttle buses will run from the Cavalier Heights Visitor Center to the Stephen T. Mather Training Center approximately every 15 minutes. All symposium participants must park at the Cavalier Heights Visitor Center and take the shuttle bus.

8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. – Registration open

8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. – Coffee and pastries served

8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. – Ongoing book signings

8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Book sales open in Mather Training Center lobby.

9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. – Session Set III

Session III.A., First Floor Classroom, Stephen T. Mather Training Center

Session Title: The Literary Legacy of John Brown
Session Chair: Sandra Harbert Petrulionis, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona

  • III.A.1. Barbara Foley, Rutgers University, Newark
    Title: John Brown, the New Negro Renaissance, and Literary Modernism
  • III.A.2. James Edward Ford, III, University of Notre Dame
    Title: “The Coming of the Lord’: W.E.B. Du Bois’ John Brown (1909) and the Re-thinking of Messianism
  • III.A.3. Jeffrey Kane, St. Peter’s College
    Title: Gates of Horn and Ivory

Session III.B., Second Floor Classroom, Stephen T. Mather Training Center

Session Title:  Harpers Ferry Raid, John Brown’s Trial, and the Uses of Rhetoric
Session Chair: Jim Addy, Mayor, Harpers Ferry

  • III.B.1. William Gombash, III, Valencia Community College
    Title:  Justice, Politics, and Spectacle: The Role of the Mass Media in the Trials and Convictions of John Brown, Sacco and Vanzetti, and the Rosenbergs
  • III.B.2. Cathy M. Jackson, Norfolk State University
    Title:  John Brown: Journalistic Narratives Almost Always Did His Public Memory Wrong
  • III.B.3. Alfred Mueller, Pennsylvania State University, Mont Alto
    Title:  Return to the Gallows: Symbolic Convergence in the Final Speech of John Brown

Session III.C., Fellowship Hall, Curtis Freewill Baptist Church

Session Title: John Brown Yesterday, Today and Beyond
Session Chair: Frankie Hutton, Bowie State University (Univ. System of MD)

  • III.C.1. Consuella Askew, CUNY
    Title: John Brown in the Library Holdings of HBCU’s
  • III.C.2. Sterling Ashby, Esq.
    Title: Sharing the Legacy of John Brown with Children
  • III.C.3. Frankie Hutton, Bowie State University (Univ. System of MD)
    Title: Black Newspapers Mourn: Coverage of John Brown’s Hanging, Funeral Procession, and Aftermath

10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. – Session Set IV

Session IV.A., First Floor Classroom, Stephen T. Mather Training Center

Session Title: John Brown’s Influence on the Black Power Movement                               
Session Chair: Al Mueller, Pennsylvania State University, Mont Alto

  • IV.A.1. Kellie Carter Jackson, Columbia University
    Title: John Brown and Black Power
  • IV.A.2.  Al Vara, Temple University
    Title:  John Brown: Spark Plug of the Civil Rights Movement?

Session IV.B., Second Floor Classroom, Stephen T. Mather Training Center

Session Title: Northern Political Responses to the Harpers Ferry Raid
Session Chair: Martin Hershock, University of Michigan, Dearborn

  • IV.B.1. Angela M. Alexander, York Technical College
    Title:  “We Denounce the Lawless Invasion”: Abraham Lincoln’s Reactions to John Brown’s Raid
  • IV.B.2. Jonathan Earle, University of Kansas
    Title:  A Martyr, A Speaker, and Impending Crisis: A Prologue to the Election of 1860
  • IV.B.3. John Quist, Shippensburg University
    Title:  Michiganians Respond to John Brown

Session IV.C., Fellowship Hall, Curtis Freewill Baptist Church

Session Title: Northern Abolitionist Support of John Brown 
Session Chair: Dean Grodzins, Visiting Scholar, Massachusetts Historical Society

  • IV.C.1. Jody Cross-Hansen, Hofstra University, CUNY
    Title: Religiously-Sanctioned Violence in Virginia: “And God [Made John Brown] The Text…”: John Brown and the Religious Abolitionist Community
  • IV.C.2. Sandra Harbert Petrulionis, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona
    Title:  “A martyr to the cause of true liberty”: John Brown and Concord
  • IV.C.3. Florian Schweiger, Georgia State University
    Title:  Thoreau, John Brown, and the Sublime Spectacle of History

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Lunch provided on-site as part of symposium registration.

AFTERNOON

1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. – Keynote Address

Chapel, Curtis Freewill Baptist Church

  • Keynote Speaker: Dr. David Blight
    Class of 1954 Professor of American History
    Yale University
  • Introduction: Amy Greenberg
    Pennsylvania State University
    John Brown Remembered: Symposium Planning Committee

2:30 p.m. – Park Shuttle bus will return to Cavalier Heights Visitor Center. Participants will travel to Charles Town, West Virginia, in own vehicle. Carpooling is strongly recommended. (A list of available parking will be provided.)

3:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. – Join a guided tour of Charles Town, West Virginia. Sites include the Jefferson County Historical Museum, John Brown gallows site, and the John Blessing house

4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. – Participants will have dinner on their own. (A list of area restaurants will be provided.)

EVENING

6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. – Enjoy a lecture by Brian McGinty, Attorney and author of “John Brown’s Trial” (Harvard 2009) at the Charles Town, West Virginia, courthouse (No Admission Fee—part of Symposium Registration).

8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. – Enjoy “Sword of the Spirit,” a dramatic presentation based on the letters between John and Mary Brown at the Charles Town Opera House (No Admission Fee—part of Symposium Registration).

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

Wednesday October 14

Thursday October 15

Friday October 16

Saturday October 17

 

RELATED LINKS:

John Brown Anniversary Sales Items

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Kim Biggs
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
P O Box 65
Harpers Ferry, WV 25425

(304) 535-6024

Kim_Biggs@nps.gov

 

CONFERENCE SPONSORS:

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

Harpers Ferry Historical Association

Jefferson County NAACP

National Parks Conservation Association

John Brown Heritage Association

Penn State University, Mont Alto Campus