African-American History and Culture Conference to Open Feb. 14

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Room) – The 33rd annual Nashville Conference of African-American History and Culture will take place Friday, Feb. 14, 2014 at the Tennessee State University Avon Williams campus.

Co-sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts at Tennessee State University, and the Metropolitan Historical Commission, the conference will focus on the educational and musical legacies of Nashville’s African-American community. For more than 30 years, the award-winning conference has brought together historians, students, educators, community leaders and others interested in African-American history and culture.

During the conference, Dr. Sonya Ramsey, of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, will speak on the legacy of African-American schoolteachers in Nashville, the subject of her recent book, Reading, Writing, and Segregation: A Century of Black Women Schoolteachers in Nashville.

Additionally, Dr. Don Cusic, professor of Music Business at Belmont University, will speak on educator, poet and activist James Weldon Johnson. Dr. Janet Walsh, coordinator at the TSU Avon Williams Campus library, Beverly Robertson with the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, will highlight the research and interpretation of the African-American experience at their institutions.

In commemoration of the Sesquicentennial year of the Battle of Nashville in the American Civil War, Norm Hill will join Dr. Tim Johnson to discuss the Civil War experiences of Nashville’s African Americans during the Battle of Nashville.

For more information, contact Tara Mielnik, Metropolitan Historical Commission, at 615.862.7970, or Linda Wynn at 615.532.1550.

For more than 30 years, the Metropolitan Historical Commission and Tennessee State University have celebrated the contributions of African-Americans to Nashville and Tennessee through the Nashville Conference on African-American History and Culture. Each February, Nashvillians come together to honor these individuals through historical and cultural presentations by historians, artists, students, dramatists, musicians, genealogists, and others interested in the history of our city and state. The long-running series, Profiles of African Americans in Tennessee, a collection of almost 200 short publications, makes the Conference research available to the public.

Department of Media Relations
Tennessee State University
3500 John Merritt Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
615.963.5331

About Tennessee State University

With nearly 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 22 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.