On May 20-21, 2016, the University of Memphis hosted “Memories of a Massacre: Memphis in 1866, a Symposium Exploring Slavery, Emancipation, and Reconstruction.” The culmination of a semester-long series of lectures, workshops, discussions, and book talks, this symposium featured historians and scholars from across the country, including Robert K. Sutton, retired Chief Historian of the National Park Service. Together, their presentations and the ensuing discussions pried open what has for 150-years been the carefully concealed history of Reconstruction, its legacies, and the significant role that Memphis played in both. We are thankful for all who joined us live or followed us on social media as we reflected collectively on a wave of terror that rocked a city and changed a nation.
If you did not get a chance to attend or missed some of the panels on Saturday, you can hear them below.
SATURDAY, MAY 21
Panel Four: The Memphis Massacre (Listen Here)
• Stephen V. Ash, University of Tennessee, “A Massacre in Memphis: May 1866”
• Hannah Rosen, College of William and Mary, “Race, Gender, and Sexual Violence during the Memphis Massacre”
• Andrew Slap, East Tennessee State University, “On Duty in Memphis: Fort Pickering’s African American Soldiers”
Moderator: Bobby Lovett, Professor Emeritus, Tennessee State University
Panel Five: The Radicalization of Reconstruction (Listen Here)
• Julie Saville, University of Chicago, “Looking Forward: Reconstruction and the Black Organizing Tradition after Slavery”
• Carole Emberton, SUNY-Buffalo, “’The Violent Bear It Away’: White Responses to Black Political Mobilization during Reconstruction” Twitter Handle: @CaroleEmberton
• Timothy S. Huebner, Rhodes College, “Constitutionalism and Violence in the Era of Reconstruction”
Moderator: Antoinette Van Zelm, Assistant Director for the Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University
Panel Six: Remembering Reconstruction (Listen Here)
• Cecelia E. O’Leary, Cal-State Monterey Bay, “’Lies Agreed Upon’: The Politics of Historical Memory”
• Andre E. Johnson, University of Memphis “’If I See Next March”: Henry McNeal Turner and the Rhetorical Legacy of Reconstruction Twitter Handle: @aejohnsonphd
• Peter R. Gathje, Memphis Theological Seminary, Religion and Reconstruction: Lesson for Today? Twitter Handle: @petegath
• Charles McKinney, Rhodes College, “Reconstruction’s Protean Post-Civil Rights Legacy”Twitter Handle: @kmt188
Moderator: Steve Masler, Manager of the Exhibit Department, Pink Palace Museum, Memphis
Listen to Day One here.