BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//The Baton Foundation - ECPv6.15.18//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:The Baton Foundation
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Baton Foundation
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20210314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20211107T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20220313T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20221106T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20230312T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20231105T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20240310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20241103T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241124T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241124T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20241031T145052Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241031T145052Z
UID:32956-1732460400-1732465800@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Die Standing: From Black Panther Revolutionary to Global Diversity Consultant
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host Elmer Dixon as he talks about his journey from co-founder of the first Black Panther Party chapter outside California to diversity consultant. \nAbout the Book\nThis powerful memoir\, with a foreword by former Black Panther Party Chairman Bobby Seale\, sets the record straight about the altruistic mission of the Black Panther Party. Historically\, members of the Panthers have been maligned in media\, movies\, and minds as angry\, gun-toting\, misogynistic thugs. During his tenure\, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover declared the Black Panther Party “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.” \nTo the contrary\, the Panthers started a free breakfast program for children\, distributed free groceries to families\, opened schools\, founded health clinics\, and provided patrols to protect people from police abuse. Today\, their 10-point plan serves as a blueprint for social justice movements in the United States and abroad. \nIn Die Standing (Two Sisters Writing and Publishing\, 2023)\, Dixon describes how heavily armed Panthers confronted police to protect Black drivers. He also takes the reader into suspenseful scenes inside the Panthers’ homes and offices. \nThe book shows how\, after 16 years in the Party\, Dixon began working as an EEO officer and training manager for a large organization for which he developed and implemented trainings. He also monitored accusations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination. \nDie Standing offers Elmer Dixon’s inspiring story and action-oriented teachings to help propel social justice movements forward by creating a world in which Black and Brown people are safe to live\, learn\, and prosper. \nAbout the Speaker\nElmer Dixon is a Diversity\, Equity\, Inclusion\, and Belonging (DEIB) consultant. His expertise in the field is rooted in his identity as a revolutionary committed to working for equality and justice. \nInspired by the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s\, Elmer was 17 years old when he and his older brother\, Aaron\, co-founded the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968—the first chapter outside of California. \nAfter guiding the chapter to local prominence by providing essential services to Black and Brown people in his multicultural community\, Elmer served as director of the Al Davis Girls and Boys Club in Tacoma\, Washington’s predominantly Black Hilltop community. He then became Training Manager and EEO officer for the Seattle Parks Department\, creating and implementing anti-sexual harassment policies\, recruiting women to non-traditional jobs\, and investigating sexual harassment complaints. Dixon’s success in that position led then-Mayor Charles Royer to appoint him to his cabinet as director of the city’s Citizens Service Bureau. \nElmer’s EEO work impressed the founders of Executive Diversity Services (EDS)\, who recruited him to a new career providing high-level DEIB training to national and international businesses. In 2010\, Elmer became the organization’s president. \nElmer has been a guest lecturer at JAMK University of Applied Sciences in Finland for the last 13 years\, and teacher at Espeme University in Lille and Nice\, France. He is the current president of SIETAR USA\, and routinely presents at SIETAR Europa. His recent TEDx Talk is “Stories from the Revolution’s Front Lines.” \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/die-standing-from-black-panther-revolutionary-to-global-diversity-consultant/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/10/Die.Standing-70w.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241013T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241013T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20240907T145750Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240907T145750Z
UID:32947-1728831600-1728837000@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:What's Your Street Race? Why We Must Add a Street Race Question in Federal Standards and Beyond for Advancing Equity in Black Diasporic Communities
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the perception of race in U.S. society and how we must rethink it. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Program\nThis presentation will focus on the urgency of employing intersectionality as a transformational and ethical vision for data infrastructure that can illuminate inequities within heterogenous Black diasporic communities. Dr. López will discuss policy-relevant research on outcomes in health\, education\, employment\, housing\, poverty\, wealth\, etc. that shows that race is a social status that has a visual\, ocular and corporeal component and ethnicity as a cultural background. An intersectional understanding recognizes that race and ethnicity are simultaneous\, yet they are analytically distinct positions in society that require separate questions because they are not concordant. Imagine if intersectionality as praxis and inquiry became a normative ethical principle for revising Office of Management and Budget (OMB) federal guidelines on race and ethnicity and a street race question was added to all institutional data collection?  How can we engage in what Crenshaw calls “mapping the margins” and what Collins calls intersectional “flexible solidarity\,” when it comes to data collection\, that makes the invisible visible within Black Diasporic communities and beyond? \nAbout the Speaker\nDr. Nancy López is professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico. She co-founded and directs the Institute for the Study of “Race” and Social Justice. Her scholarship\, teaching and service are guided by the insights of intersectionality–the importance of examining the simultaneity of race\, gender\, class\, ethnicity and other systems of inequalities across a variety of social outcomes\, including education\, health\, employment\, and housing for developing contextualized solutions that advance social justice. Dr. López is author of Hopeful Girls\, Troubled Boys: Race & Gender Disparity in Urban Education (2003); co-editor of\, Creating Alternative Discourses in the Education of Latinas & Latinos (2003)\, Mapping “Race”: Critical Approaches to Health Disparities Research (2013); and QuantCrit: An Antiracist Approach to Education Equity (2023). Her current research\, “Intersectionality as Inquiry and Praxis: Race-Gender-Class-Ethnicity for Student Success in STEM\,” is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) program. Professor López is a Black Latina\, New York City-born daughter of Dominican immigrants with a second-grade education rich in cultural wealth. She is the first woman of color tenured in Sociology and the first woman of the African Diaspora tenured in the College of Arts and Sciences (2008) and promoted to full professor (2018) at UNM. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/whats-your-street-race-why-we-must-add-a-street-race-question-in-federal-standards-and-beyond-for-advancing-equity-in-black-diasporic-communities/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/09/Nancy-Lopez-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240915T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240915T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20240907T143023Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240907T143023Z
UID:32938-1726412400-1726417800@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:The Nation That Never Was
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the enduring myth of the so-called American story. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nThere’s a common story we tell about America: that our fundamental values as a country were stated in the Declaration of Independence\, fought for in the Revolution\, and made law in the Constitution. In The Nation that Never Was (The University of Chicago Press\, 2022)\, Kermit Roosevelt III\, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law\, argues that\, with the country increasingly divided\, this story isn’t working for us anymore—what’s more\, it’s not even true. Roosevelt presents an eye-opening reinterpretation of the American story\, in which our fundamental values\, particularly equality\, are not part of the vision of the Founders and suggests that there is a different and more useful way to understand our history. \nAbout the Author\nKermit Roosevelt is the David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. He is the author of numerous law review articles and several books. Before joining the Penn faculty\, he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. In 2021\, he was selected by President Biden to serve on the Presidential Commission on Supreme Court Reform. He is also the author of two novels\, Allegiance and In the Shadow of the Law. Professor Roosevelt is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/the-nation-that-never-was/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/09/Nation-that-Never-Was-70w.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240623T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240623T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20240527T135640Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240903T230509Z
UID:32881-1719154800-1719160200@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:The Rage of Innocence
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the day-to-day brutalities endured by Black youth growing up under constant police surveillance and the persistent threat of physical and psychological abuse. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required.\nAbout the Book\nDrawing upon twenty-five years of experience representing young people in Washington\, D.C.’s juvenile courts\, Kristin Henning confronts America’s irrational and manufactured fears of Black youth and makes a compelling case that the nation’s obsession with policing and incarcerating Black America begins with Black children.\n\nUnlike White youth\, who are afforded the freedom to test boundaries and figure out who they are and who they want to be\, Black youth are seen as a threat to White America and denied the privilege of healthy adolescent development. Weaving together powerful narratives and persuasive data\, Henning examines the criminalization of Black adolescent play and sexuality\, the demonization of Black fashion\, hair\, and music\, and the discriminatory impact of police in schools.\n\nThe Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group\, 2021)\, lays bare the long-term consequences of racism and trauma that Black children experience at the hands of police and their vigilante surrogates and explains how discriminatory and aggressive policing has socialized a generation of Black teenagers to fear and resent the police.\nAbout the Author\nKristin Henning is the Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown. Professor Henning has been representing children accused of crime for more than 26 years and was the lead attorney for the Juvenile Unit of the D.C. Public Defender Service. She is currently the Director of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Gault Center.\n\nProfessor Henning worked closely with the McArthur Foundation’s Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network to develop the Juvenile Training Immersion Program (JTIP)\, a national training curriculum for youth defenders\, and is the co-founder of several initiatives to combat racial inequities in the juvenile and criminal legal systems\, including the Ambassadors for Racial Justice program and a Racial Justice Toolkit for defenders. Professor Henning trains state actors across the country on the impact of racial bias in the courts and the traumatic effects of policing in communities of color.\n\nProfessor Henning writes extensively about race\, adolescence\, and policing\, and her book\, The Rage of Innocence\, was featured on the front page of The New York Times Book Review. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Center for Children’s Law and Policy\, was a Reporter for the ABA’s Juvenile Justice Standards Task Force and is an Advisor to ALI’s Restatement on Children and the Law project. In addition\, she has received many awards including a 2023 Embracing the Legacy Award from the RFK Community Alliance\, a 2022 Women of Distinction Award from the American Association of University Women\, the 2021 Juvenile Leadership Prize from the Juvenile Law Center\, and the Robert E. Shepherd\, Jr. Award for Excellence in Juvenile Defense by the Gault Center. Professor Henning earned her B.A. from Duke University\, her J.D. from Yale Law School\, and her LLM in Advocacy from Georgetown Law.\nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/the-rage-of-innocence/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/05/Rage-of-Innocence-70w.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240609T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240609T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20240602T010833Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240609T005914Z
UID:32888-1717945200-1717950600@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Blackness in Mexico
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the efforts underway in Mexico to recognize African-descendant Mexicans as a distinct cultural group. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nThrough historical and ethnographic research\, Blackness in Mexico (University Press of Florida\, 2023)\, delves into the ongoing movement toward recognizing Black Mexicans as a cultural group within a nation that has long viewed the non-Black Mestizo as the archetypal citizen. Anthony Jerry focuses on this process in Mexico’s Costa Chica region in order to explore the relational aspects of citizenship and the place of Black people in how modern citizenship is imagined. \nJerry’s study of the Costa Chica shows the political stakes of the national project for Black recognition; the shared but competing interests of the Mexican government\, activists\, and townspeople; and the ways that the state and NGOs are working to make “Afro-Mexican” an official cultural category. He argues that the demand for recognition by Black communities calls attention to how the Mestizo has become an intuitive point of reference for identifying who qualifies as “other.” Jerry also demonstrates that while official recognition can potentially empower African descendants\, it can simultaneously reproduce the same logics of difference that have brought about their social and political exclusion. \nOne of few books to center Blackness within a discussion of Mexico or to incorporate a focus on Mexico into Black studies\, this book ultimately argues that the official project for recognition is itself a methodology of mestizaje\, an opportunity for the government to continue to use Blackness to define the national subject and to further the Mexican national project. PURCHASE BOOKS HERE. \nAbout the Author\nAnthony Russell Jerry is an assistant professor of Anthropology at the University of California\, Riverside. His research interests are Blackness\, citizenship\, subject-making\, and Black entrepreneurship in the “Americas.” Professor Jerry is the founder and director of the Cultural Media Archive and The Empathy Archive–online platforms designed to promote racial literacy and social and emotional learning through empathy and awareness. He holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign\, an MA in applied anthropology from San Diego State University\, and an MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at University of California\, Riverside. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/blackness-in-mexico/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/06/Blackness-in-Mexico-70w.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240519T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240519T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20240305T030820Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240306T015021Z
UID:32849-1716130800-1716136200@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Black Elders: The Meaning of Age in American Slavery and Freedom
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the importance of Black elders during the eras of enslavement and emancipation. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nWould there have been a Frederick Douglass if it were not for Betsy Bailey\, the grandmother who raised him? Would Harriet Jacobs have written her renowned autobiography\, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl\, if her grandmother\, a free Black woman named Molly Horniblow\, had not enabled Jacobs’ escape from slavery? \nIn Black Elders: The Meaning of Age in American Slavery and Freedom (University of Pennsylvania Press\, 2024)\, Frederick C. Knight explores the experiences of African Americans with aging and in old age during the eras of slavery and emancipation. Though slavery put a premium on young labor\, elders worked as caregivers\, domestics\, cooks\, or midwives and performed other tasks in the margins of Southern and Northern economies. Looking at Black families\, churches\, mutual aid societies\, and homes for the aged\, Knight demonstrates the pivotal role of elders in the history of African American community formation through Reconstruction. \nDrawing on a wide array of printed and archival sources\, including slave narratives\, plantation records\, letters\, diaries\, meeting minutes\, and state and federal archives\, Knight also examines how Blacks and Whites\, men and women\, the young and the old developed competing ideas about age and aging\, differences that shaped social relations in coastal West and West Central Africa\, the Atlantic and domestic slave trades\, colonial and antebellum Southern slave societies\, and emancipation in the North and South. \nBlack Elders offers a unique window into the individual and collective lives of African Americans\, the day-to-day struggles they waged with regards to their experiences of aging\, and how they drew upon these resources to define the meaning of family\, community\, and freedom. Please use this link to purchase the book. \nAbout the Author\nFrederick Knight is professor of history at Morehouse College. He specializes in the history of African Americans and the African Diaspora before 1900. Dr. Knight has held fellowships at the Center for Black Studies at the University of California\, Santa Barbara; the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia; the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization at Brown University; and the University of California\, Riverside\, where he held the P. Sterling Stuckey Postdoctoral Fellowship in African American history. He has also served in various capacities with scholarly organizations including Imagining America\, the American Historical Association\, and the Omohundro Institute. \nProfessor Knight has published numerous book chapters and articles in his field. Prior to this current book\, Black Elders\, he published Working the Diaspora: The Impact of African Labor on the Anglo-American World\, 1650-1850 (NYU Press\, 2010). It traces how Africans\, though carried across the Atlantic against their wills\, drew upon knowledge from their homelands to shape the agricultural and material worlds of New World slave labor camps. \nProfessor Knight received his Ph.D. from the University of California\, Riverside. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/black-elders-the-meaning-of-age-in-american-slavery-and-freedom/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Black-Elders-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240505T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240505T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20240305T030544Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240503T010139Z
UID:32835-1714921200-1714926600@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Before the Movement
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a conversation about the hidden history of Black civil rights. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nIn a brilliant rethinking of civil rights\, Dylan C. Penningroth’s Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights (Liveright Publishing Corporation\, 2023) changes the way we think about Black history itself. Interweaving his own family history with long-forgotten documents found in county courthouse basements\, he reveals how African Americans thought about\, talked about\, and used the law long before the marches of the 1960s. In a world that denied their constitutional rights\, Black people built lives for themselves through the “rights of everyday use.” Before the Movement recovers a rich vision of Black life–a vision allied with\, yet distinct from\, the freedom struggle. Please use this link to purchase the book. \nAbout the Speakers\nDylan C. Penningroth is a professor of law and history at the University of California–Berkeley\, currently serving as Associate Dean of the Program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at Berkeley Law. He specializes in African American history and legal history. His first book\, The Claims of Kinfolk: African American Property and Community in the Nineteenth-Century South\, published by the University of North Carolina Press\, won the 2004 Civil War and Reconstruction Book Award from the Organization of American Historians. His articles have appeared in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review\, the Journal of American History\, and the American Historical Review. Penningroth has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities\, the National Science Foundation\, the Stanford Humanities Center\, and the MacArthur Foundation. \nFrederick Knight is professor of history at Morehouse College. He specializes in the history of African Americans and the African Diaspora before 1900. Dr. Knight has held fellowships at the Center for Black Studies at the University of California\, Santa Barbara; the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia; the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization at Brown University; and the University of California\, Riverside\, where he held the P. Sterling Stuckey Postdoctoral Fellowship in African American history. He has also served in various capacities with scholarly organizations including Imagining America\, the American Historical Association\, and the Omohundro Institute. Professor Knight has published numerous book chapters and articles in his field. Prior to this current book\, Black Elders (University of Pennsylvania Press\, 2024)\, he published Working the Diaspora: The Impact of African Labor on the Anglo-American World\, 1650-1850 (NYU Press\, 2010). Professor Knight received his Ph.D. from the University of California\, Riverside. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/before-the-movement/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/03/BTM-program-image-w70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240423T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240423T203000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20240201T173818Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240406T143536Z
UID:32826-1713898800-1713904200@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Get Off My Neck
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the injustices and racial inequities in the U.S. criminal legal system. This in-person program is free to the public\, but registration is required. You may register here. \nAbout the Book\nIn Get Off My Neck (MIT Press\, 2024) Debbie Hines draws on her unique perspective as a trial lawyer\, former Baltimore prosecutor\, and assistant attorney general for the State of Maryland to argue that US prosecutors\, as the most powerful players in the criminal legal system\, systematically target and criminalize Black people. Hines describes her disillusionment as a young Black woman who initially entered the profession with the goal of helping victims of crimes\, only to discover herself aiding and abetting a system that prizes plea bargaining\, speedy conviction\, and excessive punishment above all else. In this book\, she offers concrete\, specific\, and hopeful solutions for just how we can come together in a common purpose for criminal justice and racial justice reform. \nGet Off My Neck explains that the racial inequities in the prosecutorial system are built into our country’s DNA. What’s more\, they are the direct result of a history that has conditioned Americans to perceive the Black body as insignificant at best and dangerous at worst. Unlike other books that discuss the prosecutor’s office and change from inside the office\, Hines offers a proactive approach to fixing our broken prosecutorial system through a broad-based alliance of reform-minded prosecutors\, activists\, allies\, communities\, and racial justice organizations—all working together to end the racist treatment of Black people. Told intimately through personal\, family\, and client narratives\, Get Off My Neck is not only a deeply sobering account of our criminal legal system and its devastating impact on Black children\, youth\, and adults\, but also it is a practical and inspiring roadmap for how we can start doing better right now. Books will be available for purchase. \nAbout the Speakers\nDebbie Hines is a former Baltimore prosecutor and Assistant Attorney General for the State of Maryland. Ms. Hines is a trial attorney and an advocate for racial equity in the criminal justice system. She maintains a private law practice focused on civil and criminal litigation in Washington\, DC. A leading voice in the discourse of criminal justice and race\, Hines is often called on by media networks for legal commentary. \nCarl Suddler is an associate professor of history at Emory University. His first book\, Presumed Criminal: Black Youth and the Justice System in Postwar New York (2019) is widely used in college and graduate classrooms across the country. \nProfessor Suddler has published works that have appeared in the Journal of American History\, Journal of African American History\, American Studies Journal\, and Journal of Sports History. In 2020\, he edited a special issue of The American Historian magazine that historically contextualized the global protests that occurred in the wake of the murders of George Floyd\, Breonna Taylor\, and others. His expertise is in high demand from scholarly communities and media outlets such as CNN\, ABC News\, Al Jazeera\, Black News Channel\, and NPR. \nIn addition to a number of public-facing projects\, Suddler is currently working on a second book project\, tentatively titled No Way Out: The Carceral Boundaries of Race and Sports. The book uncovers the hidden fingerprints of police power in sports over the past 150 years and tells the stories of how Black athletes have been forced to navigate the constantly growing police presence in their daily lives. \nNOTE: Limited free parking is available on site behind the library only. Once parked\, secure a pass from the security desk inside. Additional on-street parking is free at 7p.m.
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/get-off-my-neck/
LOCATION:Auburn Avenue Research Library\, 101 Auburn Avenue NE\, Atlanta\, GA\, 30303\, United States
CATEGORIES:Lecture & Book Signing
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Get-Off-My-Neck-w70-2.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240317T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240317T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20240206T021128Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240206T023321Z
UID:32841-1710687600-1710693000@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a conversation with journalist and author Antonia Hylton about her new book that centers mental illness\, slavery\, and racial segregation in the United States. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nIn Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum (Hachette Book Group\, 2024)\, Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital\, one of the last segregated asylums with surviving records and a campus that still stands to this day in Anne Arundel County\, Maryland. She blends the intimate tales of patients and employees whose lives were shaped by Crownsville with a decade-worth of investigative research and archival documents. Madness chronicles the stories of Black families whose mental health suffered as they tried\, and sometimes failed\, to find safety and dignity. Hylton also grapples with her own family’s experiences with mental illness\, and the secrecy and shame that it reproduced for generations. \nIn her book\, Hylton traces the legacy of slavery to the treatment of Black people’s bodies and minds in our current mental healthcare system. It is a captivating and heartbreaking meditation on how America decides who is sick or criminal\, and who is worthy of our care or irredeemable. Please use this link to purchase the book. \nAbout the Speakers\nAntonia Hylton is a Peabody and Emmy-award winning journalist at NBC News reporting on politics and civil rights\, and the co-host of the hit podcast Southlake and Grapevine. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University\, where she received prizes for her investigative research on race\, mass incarceration and the history of psychiatry. She lives in Brooklyn. \nKiplyn Primus is a journalist\, strategic marketing professional\, and host of WCLK’s (91.9) The Local Take with Kiplyn Primus—a public affairs show that features discussions about critical issues facing Atlanta and profiles organizations engaged in important work in the station’s constituent communities. \nMs. Primus has had a long career in public and commercial media\, including stints with The Atlanta Tribune\, Global Atlanta\, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her work in strategic marketing focuses on health\, finance and the tech industry\, including Goldman Sachs and the DeKalb Hospital Authority. In addition\, she has written extensively on global and local initiatives for several publications and media outlets. Kiplyn is also a veteran facilitator with the Atlanta-based StoryCorps studio—the largest oral history project in the United States. \nMs. Primus received a BA degree in journalism and English from Howard University (Washington\, D.C.) and an MBA in marketing from Clark Atlanta University (Atlanta\, GA). \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/madness-race-and-insanity-in-a-jim-crow-asylum/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Madness-program-w70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240218T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240218T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20240201T165359Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240205T010110Z
UID:32819-1708268400-1708273800@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:America’s Black Capital
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about how African Americans remade Atlanta in the Shadow of the Confederacy. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nAmerica’s Black Capital (Basic Books\, 2023) tells the remarkable story of how African Americans transformed Atlanta\, the former heart of the Confederacy\, into today’s so-called Black mecca. \nAtlanta is home to some of America’s most prominent Black politicians\, artists\, businesses\, and HBCUs. Yet\, in 1861\, Atlanta was a final contender to be the capital of the Confederacy. Sixty years later\, long after the Civil War\, it was the Ku Klux Klan’s sacred “Imperial City.” \nAmerica’s Black Capital chronicles how a center of Black excellence emerged amid virulent expressions of white nationalism\, as African Americans pushed back against Confederate ideology to create an extraordinary locus of achievement. What drove them\, historian Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar shows\, was the belief that Black uplift would be best advanced by forging Black institutions. America’s Black Capital is an inspiring story of Black achievement against all odds\, with effects that reached far beyond Georgia\, shaping the nation’s popular culture\, public policy\, and politics. Please use this link to purchase the book. \nAbout the Author\nJeffrey O. G. Ogbar is Professor of History and the founding Director of the Center for the Study of Popular Music. He is the author or editor of several books\, including Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity (The Johns Hopkins University Press\, 2004)\, Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap (University Press of Kansas\, 2007); and The Harlem Renaissance Revisited: Politics\, Arts and Letters\, (Johns Hopkins University Press\, 2010). In 2018\, he released Keywords for African American Studies (New York University Press)\, with co-editors Erica R. Edwards and Roderick A. Ferguson. Dr. Ogbar’s articles appear in the Journal of Religious Thought\, Journal of Black Studies\, Souls\, Centro and Radical Society among other academic publications. He has been invited to write for The New York Times’ “Room for Debate” and The Daily Beast\, among other publications. His newest book\, America’s Black Capital: How African Americans Remade Atlanta in the Shadow of the Confederacy\, released in 2023 with Basic Books\, was named on the “Best Books of 2023” list from Publishers Weekly. Raised in Los Angeles\, California\, Ogbar received his BA in history from Morehouse College and his MA and Ph.D. degrees in history from Indiana University. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/americas-black-capital/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/02/Americas-Black-Capital-w70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231203T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231203T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20231115T004834Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231115T005249Z
UID:32791-1701615600-1701621000@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Celebrating the Season…Honoring Self
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a virtual expressive arts workshop to help center us during the holiday season. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Workshop\nWith the holiday season upon us and a new year just weeks away\, this virtual expressive arts workshop will encourage participants to reflect on 2023 and take stock of and nurture self. \nDespite the challenges we might face and regardless of the turmoil around us\, it is important to focus on our innate strengths and to ground oneself in the knowledge that all is well. Dr. Wendy Phillips will employ guided expressive arts techniques that will aid each participant in her or his journey to self-expression and healing. \nPlease wear comfortable clothes and bring paper\, chalk\, crayons\, colored pencils\, play dough or paints–whatever materials you would like to work with. You will be able to participate with your camera off or on and there is never any pressure on anyone to actively engage with the group. At the end of the session\, the group will reflect on what has been expressed\, discovered\, and experienced. \nShould you have questions about the workshop beforehand\, you may call Dr. Phillips at 404-798-1061. \nAbout Expressive Arts\nThe Expressive Arts combine a variety of practices including writing\, music\, visual arts\, drama\, and dance to support self-expression\, personal growth and healing. In each session\, and as one participates\, s/he explores a variety of materials and activities. The expressive arts have been defined as supporting a process of self-discovery and self-expression\, as a way to connect with one’s creative self\, and also as a way to find tranquility and or achieve emotional release. \nAbout the Instructor\nWendy Phillips\, Ph.D.\, LMFT\, REAT\, REACE is a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist\, A Registered Expressive arts Consultant Educator\, and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who is based in Atlanta. She also teaches in the Psychology and Creativity Studies Programs at Saybrook University. \nRegister Here for Zoom Workshop
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/celebrating-the-seasonhonoring-self/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Workshop
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/04/Wendy-Phillips.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231119T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231119T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230828T201215Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230828T201215Z
UID:32757-1700406000-1700411400@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Georgia’s Long Struggle Toward Democracy: The Role of the Press\, Then and Now
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the role of Black press leaders in Georgia’s ongoing struggle for democracy. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Program\nGeorgia and its capital city\, Atlanta\, have long played a central role in the U.S. struggle to achieve the democratic ideals set forth in its founding documents. From the end of the Civil War (1861-1865) to the present\, a reactionary\, anti-democratic\, White nationalist press has often worked against these efforts. \nUsing their book\, Journalism and Jim Crow (University of Illinois Press\, 2021)\, as a backdrop\, professors D’Weston Haywood and Kathy Roberts Forde will discuss how White press leaders\, collaborating with Georgia governors\, senators\, officials\, and business leaders\, helped build a violent White supremacist society and political economy that endured for generations after the war. They also will tell the equally compelling story about how Black press leaders fought back–documenting\, in real time\, what was happening while marshaling a collective Black power to forge a more inclusive and just democracy in the state\, the South\, and in the nation. Drs. Forde and Haywood will connect this history to the momentous events taking place in Georgia today. \nAbout the Author\nD’Weston Haywood is an Associate Professor of History at Hunter College\, City University of New York (CUNY). His work centers on Black protest and cultural politics\, and their intersections with the state and public spheres. His award-winning book\, Let Us Make Men: The Twentieth-Century Black Press and a Manly Vision for Racial Advancement (UNC Press\, 2018)\, explores this. Haywood’s work also includes “Sonic Scholarship.” His projects here include “The [Ferguson] Files: A Sonic Study of Racial Violence in America” (2016)\, examining a year of racial violence from the killing of Michael Brown to the massacre at Mother Emanuel AME Church\, and “MADE MEN” (2020)\, examining White Nationalism\, White masculinity\, and American politics in the Trump era. He is currently working on two book projects\, one reconsidering the Cold War and Space Age through Black Nationalism\, and another analyzing Black political theory\, Hip Hop\, and mass incarceration. Originally from North Carolina\, Haywood currently lives in Queens\, New York. \nAbout the Editor\nKathy Roberts Forde is Professor of Journalism and Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is co-editor and contributing author of the book Journalism and Jim Crow: White Supremacy and the Black Struggle for a New America\, which received the American Historical Association Palmegiano Book Award\, the AEJMC History Division Book Award\, and the American Journalism Historians Association Book Award. A U.S. press historian\, Dr. Forde is working on a new book about the role of the White press in racial massacres—instigating\, organizing\, and covering up racial massacres for generations after the Civil War—and the role of the Black press in exposing these atrocities and attempting to hold those responsible to account. Professor Forde was raised in rural East Tennessee. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/georgias-long-struggle-toward-democracy-the-role-of-the-press-then-and-now/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/08/Journalizm-and-Jim-Crow-70.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231105T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231105T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230828T114325Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230828T114325Z
UID:32723-1699196400-1699201800@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Afro-Hispanic Painter Juan de Pareja
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit\, Juan de Pareja\, Afro-Hispanic Painter (April 3 – July 16\, 2023). This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Program\nDr. David Pullins\, associate curator in the Department of European Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (pictured above)\, will talk about the exhibition he recently co-curated at the museum\, Juan de Pareja\, Afro-Hispanic Painter. The research inspired by this groundbreaking exhibit has offered an unprecedented look at the life and artistic achievements of Juan de Pareja (ca. 1608–1670). Largely known today as the subject of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s iconic portrait by Diego Velázquez (pictured above)\, Pareja was enslaved in Velázquez’s studio for more than two decades before becoming an artist in his own right. The exhibition was the first to tell his story and examine the ways in which enslaved artisanal labor and a multiracial society are inextricably linked with the art and material culture of Spain’s so-called Golden Age. The exhibit brought together approximately 40 paintings\, sculpture\, and decorative arts objects\, as well as an array of books and historic documents from The Met’s holdings and other collections in the United States and Europe. \nMax Hollein\, Marina Kellen French Director of The Met.\, said\, “This exhibition takes us to the very heart of 17th-century Spanish painting to reveal Juan de Pareja’s incredible personal story. By reexamining the narrative around one of the most celebrated works in the history of western portraiture\, the presentation challenges us to question existing notions about historical art and objects—and introduces a remarkable artist whose name may be familiar to many but whose work had not been explored in depth.” \nAbout Juan de Pareja\nJuan de Pareja was born around 1608 in Antequera\, Spain–probably to an enslaved woman of African descent and a white Spaniard. Although no known documents from Pareja’s lifetime speculate on his family origins or skin color\, ample evidence from seventeenth-century Spain provides the context of a highly multiracial society in which enslaved labor was widespread. Pareja is first mentioned in Madrid in 1634 as part of the circle of artist Diego Velázquez\, who was then establishing himself as the foremost painter at the Spanish court. Between 1649 and 1650\, the pair traveled to Italy\, where Velázquez painted Pareja’s portrait and signed legal papers releasing him from slavery. Once back in Madrid\, Pareja built a successful career as an independent artist. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/afro-hispanic-painter-juan-de-pareja-2/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/07/David-Pullins-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231029T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231029T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230930T153336Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230930T153336Z
UID:32778-1698591600-1698597000@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:King: A Life
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a conversation with author Jonathan Eig about his new biography of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King\, Jr. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nVividly written and exhaustively researched\, Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life (Macmillan\, 2023) is the first major biography in decades of civil rights icon Martin Luther King\, Jr. — and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world\, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. Eig casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife\, father\, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods\, a citizen hunted by his own government\, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham\, Selma\, and Memphis\, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father—as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr. \nIn this landmark biography\, Jonathan Eig gives us an MLK for our times: a deep thinker\, a brilliant strategist\, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements\, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime. \nAbout the Speakers\nJonathan Eig is a former senior writer for The Wall Street Journal. He is the New York Times bestselling author of several books\, including Ali: A Life\, Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig\, and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season. Ken Burns calls him “a master storyteller\,” and Eig’s books have been listed among the best of the year by The Washington Post\, Chicago Tribune\, Sports Illustrated\, and Slate. He lives in Chicago with his wife and children. \nKiplyn Primus is a journalist\, strategic marketing professional\, and host of WCLK’s (91.9) The Local Take with Kiplyn Primus—a public affairs show that features discussions about critical issues facing Atlanta and profiles organizations engaged in important work in the station’s constituent communities. \nMs. Primus has had a long career in public and commercial media\, including stints with The Atlanta Tribune\, Global Atlanta\, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her work in strategic marketing focuses on health\, finance and the tech industry\, including Goldman Sachs and the DeKalb Hospital Authority. In addition\, she has written extensively on global and local initiatives for several publications and media outlets. Kiplyn is also a veteran facilitator with the Atlanta-based StoryCorps studio—the largest oral history project in the United States. \nMs. Primus received a BA degree in journalism and English from Howard University (Washington\, D.C.) and an MBA in marketing from Clark Atlanta University (Atlanta\, GA). \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/king-a-life/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/09/King-a-Life-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231022T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231022T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230929T004312Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230929T004312Z
UID:32768-1697986800-1697992200@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Howard Thurman’s Atlanta: Nonviolence\, Civil Rights\, and Mystical Thought
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a conversation about the role Atlanta played in the life and work of Howard Thurman. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Program\nUsing Peter Eisenstadt’s book\, Against the Hounds of Hell: A Life of Howard Thurman (University of Virginia Press\, 2021)\, as the backdrop\, distinguished Howard Thurman scholars Luther E. Smith\, Jr. (Emory Professor Emeritus) and Peter Eisenstadt\, will engage each other in a conversation about Howard Thurman’s life and work in Atlanta. \nAn early pacifist and the first African American to meet Mahatma Gandhi\, Reverend Thurman often is overlooked in the pages of history as a foundational proponent of nonviolent direct action. A nationally recognized human rights advocate\, Thurman would serve as spiritual advisor to James Farmer and Pauli Murray (founding members of C.O.R.E.)\, Marian Wright Edelman (Children’s Defense Fund)\, Reverend Jesse Jackson\, Vernon Jordan (National Urban League)\, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King\, Jr.\, and other civil rights activists. \nIntegral to Thurman’s development and to the trajectory of his career was the time he spent in Atlanta. From his years as a student at Morehouse College\, his return to campus in 1928 for a dual appointment in religion and philosophy at Morehouse and Spelman Colleges\, and decades of speaking engagements in the city\, Atlanta figured prominently in his life. This program is designed to give the speakers great latitude to converse about Thurman’s life in Atlanta\, his impact on the city and one of its most influential and beloved native sons. \nAbout the Speakers\nPeter Eisenstadt\, Ph.D.\, was Associate Editor of the Howard Thurman Papers Project and is an affiliate member of the Clemson University history department. He is author of Rochdale Village: Robert Moses\, 6\,000 Families\, and New York City’s Great Experiment in Integrated Housing. \nLuther E. Smith\, Jr.\, Ph.D.\, is Professor Emeritus of Church and Community\, Candler School of Theology of Emory University (Atlanta\, Georgia)\, at which he served on the faculty for thirty-five years. \nWhile at Emory University\, Dr. Smith served as president of the University Senate\, president of the University’s Faculty Council\, and as Candler’s Associate Dean for Faculty Development. Professor Smith writes and speaks extensively on issues of church and society\, congregational renewal\, meanings and dynamics of community\, interfaith cooperation\, Christian spirituality\, and the thought of Howard Thurman. He is the author of Howard Thurman: The Mystic as Prophet\, Intimacy and Mission: Intentional Community as Crucible for Radical Discipleship\, and editor of Howard Thurman: Essential Writings. Dr. Smith is the Senior Advisory Editor for the five-volume papers project The Papers of Howard Washington Thurman (the second largest papers project on an African American). His book\, Hope is Here! Spiritual Practices for Justice and Beloved Community\, is being published by Westminster John Knox Press and will be released in November 2023. \nIn recognition of his scholarship\, teaching\, and community service\, Dr. Smith has received numerous awards and professional accolades. He helped to found the International Community School and the Interfaith Children’s Movement\, and currently serves as the coordinator for the Pan-Methodist Campaign for Children in Poverty. \nReverend Smith is an ordained minister of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. He lives in Stone Mountain\, Georgia with his wife Helen. They have four children and five granddaughters. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/howard-thurmans-atlanta-nonviolence-civil-rights-and-mystical-thought/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/09/Howard-Thurman-Atlanta-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230924T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230924T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230801T002156Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230801T003046Z
UID:32744-1695567600-1695573000@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Remaking the Republic
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about Black politics and the creation of American citizenship. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nCitizenship in nineteenth-century United States was an ever-moving target. The Constitution did not specify its exact meaning\, leaving lawmakers and other Americans to struggle over the fundamental questions of who could be a citizen\, how a person attained the status\, and the particular privileges citizenship afforded. Indeed\, as late as 1862\, U.S. Attorney General Edward Bates observed that citizenship was “now as little understood in its details and elements\, and the question as open to argument and speculative criticism as it was at the founding of the Government.” \nBlack people suffered under this ambiguity\, but also seized on it in efforts to transform their nominal freedom. By claiming that they were citizens in their demands for specific rights\, they were\, the author argues\, at the center of creating the very meaning of American citizenship. In the decades before and after Bates’ lament\, free African Americans used newspapers\, public gatherings\, and conventions to make arguments about who could be a citizen\, the protections citizenship entailed\, and the obligations it imposed. Thus\, they played a vital role in the long\, fraught process of determining who belonged in the nation and the terms of that belonging. \nRemaking the Republic: Black Politics and the Creation of American Citizenship (UPenn Press\, 2020)\, chronicles the various ways African Americans from a wide range of social positions throughout the North attempted to give meaning to American citizenship over the course of the nineteenth century. Examining newspapers\, state and national conventions\, public protest meetings\, legal cases\, and fugitive slave rescues\, Bonner uncovers a spirited debate about rights and belonging among African Americans\, the stakes of which could determine their place in U.S. society and shape the terms of citizenship for all Americans. \nAbout the Author\nChristopher Bonner teaches African American history at the University of Maryland\, College Park. Professor Bonner teaches courses covering African American politics and culture\, slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic world\, the transformations of the United States during the nineteenth century\, and race and ethnicity in early America. Originally from Chesapeake\, VA\, he earned his B.A. from Howard University and Ph.D. from Yale. \nOther work by Professor Bonner appears in digital form at Muster\, the blog of the Journal of the Civil War Era and at Black Perspectives\, the blog for the African American Intellectual History Society. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/remaking-the-republic/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/07/Remaking-the-Republic-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230910T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230910T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230713T152451Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230713T215540Z
UID:32732-1694358000-1694363400@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the first book-length autobiography by a formerly enslaved Black woman. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Program\nKoritha Mitchell’s edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is no ordinary edition. Besides faithfully reproducing Harriet Jacobs’ 1861 narrative\, it adds extensive explanatory footnotes and a thorough introduction. The volume also offers six appendices with historical and cultural documents that help readers appreciate the immensity of Jacobs’ achievement. Mitchell will share what she learned from editing this extraordinary text\, the first book-length autobiography by a formerly enslaved African American woman. \nAbout the Book\nIn 1861\, Harriet Jacobs became the first formerly enslaved African American woman to publish a book-length account of her life. In crafting her coming-of-age story\, she insisted upon biographical accuracy and bold creativity—telling the truth while giving herself and others fictionalized names. She also adapted conventions from two other popular genres: the sentimental novel and the slave narrative. Then\, despite facing obstacles not encountered by White women and Black men\, she orchestrated the book’s publication and became a traveling bookseller in an effort to inspire passive Americans to support the abolition of slavery. \nEngaging with the latest research on Jacobs’ life and work\, this edition helps readers to understand the magnitude of her achievement in writing\, publishing\, and distributing her life story. However\, it also shows how this monumental accomplishment was only the beginning of her contributions\, given her advocacy work over the nearly forty years that she lived after its publication. As a survivor of sexual abuse who became an advocate\, Jacobs laid a foundation for activist movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. The six appendices featured in this edition\, place at readers’ fingertips resources that further illuminate the issues raised by Jacobs’ remarkable life and legacy. \nAbout the Editor\nKoritha Mitchell (she/her + Koritha rhymes with Aretha) is an award-winning author\, literary historian\, cultural critic\, and professional development expert. Her research focuses on African America literature as well as violence in United States history and contemporary culture. She examines how texts\, both written and performed\, help targeted families and communities survive and thrive. \nHer first book\, Living with Lynching\, won awards from the American Theatre and Drama Society and from the Society for the Study of American Women Writers. Her second monograph\, From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture\, appeared in August 2020 and was named a Best Book of 2020 by Ms. Magazine and Black Perspectives. Professor Mitchell edited Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)\, the first book-length autobiography by a formerly enslaved African American woman\, and Frances E.W. Harper’s 1892 novel Iola Leroy. Her scholarly articles include “James Baldwin\, Performance Theorist\, Sings the Blues for Mister Charlie\,” published by American Quarterly\, and “Love in Action\,” which appeared in Callaloo and identifies similarities between lynching and violence against LGBTQ communities. \nCurrently a professor of English at Ohio State University\, Koritha grew up in Sugar Land\, Texas (near Houston); earned her BA from Ohio Wesleyan University; and earned her MA and PhD at the University of Maryland-College Park. \nIn 2011\, Koritha founded the Columbus\, Ohio\, chapter of Black Girls RUN!\, a national organization encouraging women to make fitness and healthy living a priority. She stepped down from leadership in 2014 and remains proud that the chapter is still going strong. On Twitter\, she’s @ProfKori. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/07/Incidents-in-the-Life-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230820T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230820T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230702T131803Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230702T131803Z
UID:32717-1692543600-1692549000@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Red Hot City
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the policies\, politics and economics that led to Atlanta’s racialized gentrification. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nAtlanta is at the red-hot core of expansion\, inequality\, and political relevance. In recent decades\, capital-driven growth has excluded low-income people and families of color from the city’s center\, pushing them to distant suburbs. As central Atlanta has experienced heavily racialized gentrification\, the suburbs have become more diverse\, and many affluent suburbs have tried to push back against this diversity. Red Hot City (University of California Press\, 2022)\, tracks these racial and economic shifts and the politics and policies that produced them. Repeatedly\, policymakers and planners have chosen trajectories that favor redeveloping places that house less affluent families and households of color to remake them for a more affluent\, whiter residential base. Revealing critical lessons for leaders\, activists\, and residents in cities around the world\, Dan Immergluck considers how planners and policymakers can reverse recent trends to create more socially equitable cities. \nAbout the Author\nDan Immergluck is a Professor of Urban Studies at Georgia State University (GSU). Prior to joining GSU in 2017\, he was Professor of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta). His research concerns housing\, neighborhood change\, and real estate markets. Dr. Immergluck is the author of five books and over 120 scholarly articles\, book chapters\, and research reports. He has consulted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development\, the U.S. Department of Justice\, foundations\, and nonprofit organizations. Professor Immergluck has been cited and quoted in The New York Times\, The Washington Post\, National Public Radio\, The Wall Street Journal\, and other media outlets. He has testified several times before the U.S. Congress and the Federal Reserve Board. Prior to becoming a full time academic\, he was a community development practitioner and affordable housing advocate in Chicago for over a decade. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/red-hot-city/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/07/Red-Hot-City-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230806T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230806T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230702T164250Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230702T164250Z
UID:32729-1691334000-1691339400@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:The Importance of Cultural Heritage Instruction for Black Boys
DESCRIPTION:We must impress upon our children that even when troubles rise to seven-point-one on life’s Richter scale\, they must be anchored so deeply that\, though they sway\, they will not topple. ~Mamie Till Mobley \nIt is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. ~Frederick Douglass \nCultural Heritage Program Orientation Overview\nInitiated in 2016\, The Baton Foundation is excited to host the eighth orientation for its signature Cultural Heritage Program. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAugust 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and almost seventy years since the horrific torture and killing of Emmet Till. In fact\, organizers selected the date on which the March of Washington occurred (August 28\, 1963)\, to honor the memory of young Emmett. \nToday\, states and school districts around the country are working feverishly to make it impossible for students to learn about history that casts the United States in a bad light–particularly as it relates to Black people. Too often\, the story of Black people in the United States is told by others\, and for reasons not meant to edify or to inspire\, much less to reflect truth. It is important\, though\, that our children learn the entirety of our history. \nThe Baton Foundation’s Cultural Heritage Program is designed to give Atlanta-area Black boys (ages 10-17) opportunities to learn about Black history and culture in an intimate\, supportive environment. In bi-weekly seminars\, students explore various aspects of the Black experience in the United States and around the world. Additionally\, they work with Baton Foundation facilitators to explore notions of self-awareness and self-mastery. The program also provides opportunities for students to explore many of Atlanta’s cultural venues and to engage in educational travel to historic and cultural sites. \nDuring the orientation\, attendees will learn more about the program and have an opportunity to ask questions of the program’s founder\, Baton Foundation board members\, and Cultural Heritage Program students. \nRegister for Zoom Orientation Here\nPhoto Credit: Adinah Morgan for The Baton Foundation (Cultural Heritage Program students at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice\, 2019)
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/the-importance-of-cultural-heritage-instruction-for-black-boys/
CATEGORIES:Cultural Heritage Program
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2021/04/DSC0557-scaled.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230625T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230625T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230425T014819Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230524T222101Z
UID:32677-1687705200-1687710600@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Smile For We
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a conversation about Black men…and their smiles. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nThe idea for Smile For We was born in response to recent instances of police brutality against Black men around the country. Often depicted as gang members\, deadbeat dads\, drug dealers\, and societal outcasts\, images of smiling Black men are rare. \nAuthor Damon Mosley says\, “Every time you turn on the TV\, one sees Black men being killed\, ridiculed\, or stereotyped…in general\, the media constantly portrays us as threats—not human beings.” He says the goal of the book “is to keep positive Black men visible and relevant.” Smile For We is a photo book dedicated to changing the way the world sees and treats Black men. Purchase books here. \nAbout the Author\nDamon Mosley is a Columbus\, Ohio-based writer\, producer\, and photography buff. He began his writing career by submitting articles to his favorite publications while studying at Columbia University. His first story appeared in SLAM magazine in 1995. He later switched gears to cartoons–authoring a comic strip called Mosley that was picked up for development by Universal Press Syndicate in 2005. \nIn 2008\, Damon self-published the children’s book\, I’ve Got to Have Those Shoes!. When he learned about the work of Samaritan’s Feet — a charitable organization based in Charlotte\, N.C.\, Mr. Mosley pledged a portion of the proceeds from the book to support their work. He also joined the group when they distributed thousands of pairs of shoes to needy children in Peru. \nAfter years of developing various projects in Hollywood\, Damon released Smile For We — a collection of portraits dedicated to changing the stereotypical images of Black men. Currently\, Mr. Mosley is writing and producing his first feature film and a TV show based on his life. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/smile-for-we/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/04/Smile-for-We-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230604T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230604T160000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230306T144135Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230426T234018Z
UID:32647-1685890800-1685894400@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Half American
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about Black Americans fighting World War II—at home and overseas. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nOver one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy\, Iwo Jima\, and the Battle of the Bulge\, serving in segregated units and performing unheralded but vital support jobs\, only to be denied housing and educational opportunities on their return home. Without their crucial contributions to the war effort\, the United States could not have won the war. And yet the stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored\, cast aside in favor of the myth of the “Good War” fought by the “Greatest Generation.” The bravery and patriotism of Black troops in the face of unfathomable racism is both inspiring and galvanizing. In a time when the questions raised about World War II regarding race and democracy in America remain troublingly relevant and still unanswered\, this meticulously researched retelling makes for urgently necessary reading. \nAbout the Author\nMatthew F. Delmont is the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College. A Guggenheim Fellow and expert on African American history and the history of civil rights\, he is the author of the new book\, Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad (Viking\, 2022). He is also the author of four previous books: Black Quotidian\, Why Busing Failed\, Making Roots\, and The Nicest Kids in Town. His work has appeared in The New York Times\, The Atlantic\, The Washington Post\, and several academic journals\, and on NPR. Originally from Minneapolis\, Minnesota\, Delmont earned his BA from Harvard University and his MA and PhD from Brown University. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/half-american/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/02/Half-American-image.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230507T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230507T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230425T023851Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230425T031155Z
UID:32686-1683471600-1683477000@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Expressive Arts Self-Exploration Workshop
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a virtual expressive arts workshop designed to help attendees explore their inner self. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Workshop\nThe expressive arts combine a variety of practices including writing\, music\, visual arts\, drama\, and dance to support self-expression\, personal growth and healing. In each session\, and as one participates\, s/he explores working with a variety of materials and activities. And\, as one completes a session\, s/he reflects on what was expressed\, discovered\, and/or experienced. The expressive arts have been defined as supporting a process of self-discovery and self-expression–as a way to connect with one’s creative self. Expressive arts also can help one find a path to tranquility and/or achieve emotional release. \nFor this introductory virtual session\, please wear comfortable clothes and bring plain white paper\, chalk\, crayons\, colored pencils\, play dough or paints—any material with which you would like to work. If preferred\, each participant will be able to work with her/his camera turned off. Should you have any questions in advance of the workshop\, please feel free to call Dr. Phillips at 404-798-1061. \nAbout the Presenter\nWendy Phillips\, Ph.D.\, LMFT\, REAT\, REACE is a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist\, a Registered Expressive arts Consultant Educator\, and an Atlanta-based Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Dr. Phillips also teaches in the Psychology and Creativity Studies Programs at Saybrook University (Pasadena\, California). \nRegister Here for Zoom Workshop
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/expressive-arts-self-exploration-workshop/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Workshop
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/04/Wendy-Phillips.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230305T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230305T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230226T134157Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230226T134157Z
UID:32653-1678028400-1678033800@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Hidden in Plain Sight: Black Women and the Civil Rights Movement
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the important role Black women played in the fight for Black liberation from the era of enslavement to the modern Civil Rights Movement. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Program\nThis talk explores why and how Black women involved in Civil Rights activism become “hidden in plain sight” and silenced in dominant U.S. historical narratives and cultural memory. Professor Yates-Richard traces a persistent representational logic that shadows and quiets Black women in Black freedom imaginings from the era of slavery through the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Yates-Richard introduces key Black women Civil Rights organizers and activists\, and highlights their contributions to the ongoing struggle for Black liberation. \nAbout the Speaker\nMeina Yates-Richard is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies and English at Emory University. She specializes in African American\, African diasporic and American literature and culture. Her scholarship explores the connections between representations of slavery\, gender\, sound\, and liberation ideologies in Black Atlantic literary and cultural production and freedom movements. Dr. Yates-Richard was 2018-19 Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and was awarded the Norman Foerster Prize for Best Essay published in American Literature in 2016 for “‘WHAT IS YOUR MOTHER’S NAME?’: Maternal Disavowal and the Reverberating Aesthetic of Black Women’s Pain in Black Nationalist Literature.” Her work appears in the Journal of West Indian Literature\, amsj: American Studies\, post-45 Contemporaries\, Feminist Review\, and the edited volume Ralph Ellison in Context. Yates-Richard co-edited with Robin Brooks MELUS Special Issue (vol 46:4)\, Black Women’s Literature: Violence & the COVID-19 Moment. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/hidden-in-plain-sight-black-women-and-the-civil-rights-movement/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/02/Yates-Richard-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230219T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230219T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230130T002016Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230226T134233Z
UID:32638-1676818800-1676824200@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Black Love: A Celebration of the Village that Raises Us
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about Black love and the village that nurtures and sustains it. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Program\nIn recognition of Valentine’s Day\, this program will shift the focus away from romantic love to\, instead\, focus on the love we each need to develop in ways that are emotionally\, culturally and socially sound. Using her book\, My George\, as a springboard\, Kathy Butler will give a presentation that celebrates Black love and those who nurture it in us individually and in our communities. \nMs. Butler will relate her personal story and tell why it is important for her to share this experience with others. She also will explore the healing power of “The Village\,” and ask those in attendance to reflect on the individuals who raised them and the source(s) of love from which they drew strength. During the program\, Ms. Butler will read excerpts from her book. \nAs a gesture of love from The Baton Foundation\, we will make a limited number of Ms. Butler’s book available to attendees. \nAbout the Book\nMy George: A Love Letter to My Dad\, is a tribute to the man who raised the author\, a man she affectionately calls George. The book celebrates George and Black fathers and father figures. Within its pages are heartwarming anecdotes detailing how George came into the author’s life and provided unconditional love\, a sense of belonging\, unwavering support and invaluable life lessons that taught her that Black life mattered before it was a hashtag. Through each story\, Ms. Butler shows young people (who may not have biological dads in their lives) that they still can experience the true love of a father. The fact is\, she says\, that “although we often see ourselves as ‘fatherless children\,’ the truth is\, many of us have father-figures (stepfathers\, godfathers\, grandfathers\, and mentors) that are parenting us.” \nEqually important\, the book is a way for our community to ignite a movement to #giveBlackdadstheirflowers and dispel the stereotype that suggests Black men are not active\, present and nurturing parental figures. \nAbout the Author\nKathy Butler\, CA\, is an author\, certified child advocate and speaker and the founder of Comfort in The Storm\, LLC–an organization created to provide education and awareness about child sex abuse prevention. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/black-love-a-celebration-of-the-village-that-raises-us/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/01/Black-Love.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230205T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230205T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20230129T140357Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230210T190613Z
UID:32632-1675609200-1675614600@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Of Blood and Sweat
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about how Black women and men helped to build wealth and power in U.S. institutions. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nIn Of Blood and Sweat (Harper Collins Publishers\, 2022)\, Clyde W. Ford uses the lives of individual Black men and women as a lens to explore the role they have played in creating American institutions of power and wealth—in agriculture\, politics\, jurisprudence\, law enforcement\, culture\, medicine\, financial services\, and many other fields—while not being allowed to fully participate or share in the rewards. Today\, activists have taken the struggle for racial equity and justice to the streets. In his book\, Dr. Ford goes back through time to excavate the roots of this struggle\, from pre-colonial Africa through post-Civil War America. As he reveals\, in tracing the history of almost any major American institution of power and wealth you’ll find it was created by Black Americans–or created to control them. \nPainstakingly researched and documented\, Of Blood and Sweat is a compelling look at the past that holds broad implications for present-day calls for racial equity\, racial justice\, and the abolishment of systemic racism\, and offers invaluable insight into our understanding of Black history and the story of America. \nAbout the Author\nClyde W. Ford is an award-winning author of 12 works of fiction and non-fiction. He is also a psychotherapist\, mythologist\, and sought-after public speaker. Dr. Ford is the recipient of the 2006 Zora Neale Hurston-Richard Wright Award in African American Literature. He has been a featured guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show\, National Public Radio\, and numerous television and radio programs. Clyde lives in Bellingham\, Washington. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/of-blood-and-sweat/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/01/Of-Blood-and-Sweat.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221120T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221120T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20220907T021105Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221016T124418Z
UID:32599-1668956400-1668961800@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:What the Children Told Us
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the lives and work of Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark—the originators of the famous “doll test”. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nWhat the Children Told Us: The Untold Story of the Famous “Doll Test” and the Black Psychologists Who Changed the World (Sourcebooks\, 2022) is the story of a young couple\, Kenneth and Mamie Clark. Kenneth\, a working-class guy from Harlem\, and Mamie\, a rich young lady from Hot Springs\, Arkansas. They met at Howard University\, fell in love and\, to her parents’ chagrin\, married in secret during the Great Depression before finishing their education. \nDr. Kenneth Clark visited rundown and under-resourced segregated schools across America\, presenting Black children with two dolls: a white one with hair painted yellow and a brown one with hair painted black. “Give me the doll you like to play with\,” he said. “Give me the doll that is a nice doll.” The psychological experiment Dr. Clark developed with his wife\, Mamie–designed to measure how segregation affected Black children’s perception of themselves and other Black people\, was at once enlightening and horrifying. Repeatedly\, the young children–some not yet five years old–selected the white doll as preferable\, and the brown doll as “bad.” Some children even denied their race. \nWhat the Children Told Us is the story of the towering intellectual and emotional partnership between two scholars who highlighted the psychological effects of racial segregation. The Clarks’ story is one of courage\, love\, and an unfailing belief that Black children deserved better than what society was prepared to give them. It is the story of two bright\, energetic\, ordinary people whose unrelenting activism played a critical role in the landmark 1954 case\, Brown v. Board of Education. The Clarks’ decades of impassioned advocacy\, their inspiring marriage\, and their enduring work shines a light on the power of passion and unrelenting commitment. \nAbout the Author\nTim Spofford grew up in the all-white mill town of Cohoes\, N.Y. hearing stories of Black families run out of his city in the middle of the night. The May 1970 slayings on the Kent and Jackson State campuses amid antiwar unrest were the catalyst for his writing career and his book\, Lynch Street\, which reconstructs the events leading to the campus slayings of two Black students in Mississippi’s capital city. A writing career focused on racial issues in education followed the completion of his first book. For seven years\, Spofford covered educational policymaking for the Albany Times Union in New York’s capital. His beat included the state Education Department\, the state Legislature and the 64-campus State University of New York system. \nSpofford has taught writing and journalism in schools and colleges and has a Doctor of Arts in English degree from the State University at Albany. He’s published articles in The New York Times\, Newsday\, Mother Jones\, Columbia Journalism Review and other publications. He also worked as a copy editor\, most recently at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida\, where he coached young editors. Spofford is an avid hiker\, swimmer and landscaper. He lives with his wife\, Barbara\, in St. Petersburg\, Florida\, and Lee\, Massachusetts. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/what-the-children-told-us/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2022/09/WTCTU-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221106T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221106T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20220902T034620Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221016T124322Z
UID:32581-1667746800-1667752200@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:Choctaw Confederates
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the nexus of the Choctaw Nation\, the Confederacy and enslaved Blacks. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nWhen the Choctaw Nation was forcibly resettled in Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma in the 1830s\, it was joined by enslaved Black people—the tribe had owned enslaved Blacks since the 1720s. By the eve of the Civil War\, 14 percent of the Choctaw Nation consisted of enslaved Blacks. Avid supporters of the Confederate States of America (CSA)\, the Nation passed a measure requiring all whites living in its territory to swear allegiance to the Confederacy and deemed any criticism of it or its army treasonous and punishable by death. Choctaws also raised an infantry force and a cavalry to fight alongside Confederate forces. \nIn Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country (The University of North Carolina Press\, 2021)\, Professor Fay Yarbrough reveals that\, while sovereignty and states’ rights mattered to Choctaw leaders\, the survival of slavery also determined the Nation’s support of the Confederacy. Mining service records for approximately 3\,000 members of the First Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles\, Yarbrough examines the experiences of Choctaw soldiers and notes that although their enthusiasm waned as the war persisted\, military service allowed them to embrace traditional masculine roles that were disappearing in a changing political and economic landscape. By drawing parallels between the Choctaw Nation and the Confederate states\, Yarbrough looks beyond the traditional binary of the Union and Confederacy and reconsiders the historical relationship between Native populations and slavery. PURCHASE BOOK HERE \nAbout the Author\nFay A. Yarbrough is professor of history at Rice University (Houston\, TX) and the author of Race and the Cherokee Nation (University of Pennsylvania Press\, 2008). \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/choctaw-confederates/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2022/09/Choctaw-Confederates-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221031T233000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221101T000000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20220904T175559Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220904T175559Z
UID:32589-1667259000-1667260800@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:"Ground Crew" Essay Contest
DESCRIPTION:CONTEST NARRATIVE \nFor more than half a century\, the Civil Rights Movement has been remembered\, in large part\, by the narratives schools\, media\, and cultural institutions have promulgated with regards to the Movement’s icons. Dr. King and Rosa Parks often are at the center of those narratives\, and for good reason. The struggle to secure the benefits of full citizenship for Black people in the United States\, however\, covers many more than just a paltry 14 years (1954-1968)\, and its foot soldiers number in the hundreds of thousands. \nIn ways both small and grand\, everyday men\, women and children began fighting for Black civil and human rights on the shores of Africa. They continued the fight on the ships that carried them to this country and\, once here (during and after enslavement)\, they fought under circumstances few of us alive today could possibly imagine. And while so-called leaders always emerged\, those elevated to positions of prominence would not have been able to carry out their work\, much less sustain themselves\, were it not for the determination\, support\, and guidance from those in their communities and across the nation. \nWe will never know all the names of the legions of courageous woman men\, and children who fought for justice and equality for Black people in this country. We can\, however\, try to do so. \nNow in its second year\, The Baton Foundation’s essay contest\, Ground Crew: Honoring Unknown Civil Rights Activists\, challenges Atlanta youth to research and write about those unknown or lesser-known Black Americans. In years to come\, the students’ essays will help us bring to the fore the names and stories of those whose lives were relegated to the margins of history. \nELIGIBILTY & REQUIREMENTS \nEligibility \nThe Baton Foundation Ground Crew Essay Contest is open to Atlanta students in grades 8-12. This applies equally to students in public schools\, private and/or parochial schools\, alternative schools and students who receive instruction at home. All entrants must live in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area (specifically\, Clayton\, Cobb\, Dekalb\, Douglas\, Gwinnett\, Henry\, Fayette\, & Fulton Counties). Students enrolled in The Baton Foundation’s Cultural Heritage Program and children of Baton Foundation board members may not participate. \nRequirements \n\nThe deadline to submit essays is Monday\, October 31\, 2022\, at 11:59pm EDT (Late entries will not be accepted).\nSubmit essays to Anthony Knight (aknight@thebatonfoundation.org).\nTyped essays should be a minimum of 700 words\, but no more than 1100 words (citations and bibliography are not included in the total word count).\nEntrants MUST create original work (without influence from or written by teachers\, parents\, siblings\, mentors\, etc.)\nWell-known Civil Rights icons are not eligible subjects for essays (i.e.\, Dr. Martin Luther King\, Jr.\, Coretta Scott King\, Rosa Parks\, Malcolm X\, Congressman John Lewis\, Fannie Lou Hamer\, Ambassador Andrew Young\, etc.). If in doubt\, please contact us.\nEssays must identify an unknown or lesser-known Black Civil Rights activist involved in the movement from 1954-1968. The essay must address the person’s life before s/he became socially active\, the event(s) that led to the individual’s participation in the Civil Rights Movement\, the specific way(s) in which that person’s work impacted her/his community\, region\, or nation; and how the person might address civil and human rights issues today.\nEssays about well-known Civil Rights Movement leaders will be disqualified.\n\nSource Materials \n\nEssays must list at least 3 source materials.\nAll entrants must cite the source materials they use. Please use parenthetical citations (not footnotes) to reference source material.\nBibliographies must be included with each essay. Please use Kate A. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Terms Papers\, Theses\, and Dissertations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press\, 2007.\n\nRECOGNITION AND AWARDS \n\nThe first-place winner will receive a $300 cash award and a signed copy of Rolundus R. Rice’s book\, Hosea Williams: A Lifetime of Defiance and Protest (The University of South Carolina Press\, 2021).\nThe second-place winner will receive a $200 cash award and a signed copy of Rolundus R. Rice’s book\, Hosea Williams: A Lifetime of Defiance and Protest (The University of South Carolina Press\, 2021).\nThe third-place winner will receive a $100 cash award and a signed copy of Rolundus R. Rice’s book\, Hosea Williams: A Lifetime of Defiance and Protest (The University of South Carolina Press\, 2021).\nFirst-\, second-\, and third-place winners will be notified by November 21\, 2022.\nAll winning essayists will participate in a virtual public awards ceremony with Professor Rice and Baton Foundation president Anthony Knight on Sunday\, December 4\, 2022.\n\nWe respectfully ask that you not call The Baton Foundation for information regarding the status of your essay. Thank you.
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/ground-crew-essay-contest-2/
CATEGORIES:Community Engagement
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2021/09/Civil-Rights-Movement.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221009T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221009T163000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20220901T231458Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220901T231458Z
UID:32555-1665327600-1665333000@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation\, in partnership with the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History\, will host a lecture about the intersectional history of the Black and Native American struggle for freedom in our country that also reframes our understanding of who was Indigenous in early America. This program is free to the public\, but registration is required. \nAbout the Book\nBeginning with pre-Revolutionary America and moving into the movement for Black lives and contemporary Indigenous activism\, Afro-Indigenous historian Kyle T. Mays argues that the foundations of the U.S. are rooted in anti-blackness and settler colonialism\, and that these parallel oppressions continue into the present. Professor Mays explores how Black and Indigenous peoples have always resisted and struggled for freedom\, sometimes together\, and sometimes apart. Whether to end African enslavement and Indigenous removal or to eradicate capitalism and colonialism\, he shows how the fervor of Black and Indigenous peoples’ calls for justice have consistently sought to uproot white supremacy. \nDr. Mays uses a wide array of historical activists and pop culture icons\, “sacred” texts\, and foundational texts like the Declaration of Independence and Democracy in America. He covers the civil rights movement and freedom struggles of the 1960s and 1970s and explores current debates around the use of Native American imagery and the cultural appropriation of Black culture. Mays compels us to rethink both our history as well as contemporary debates and to imagine the powerful possibilities of Afro-Indigenous solidarity. \nAbout the Author\nKyle T. Mays is an Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) writer and scholar of US history\, urban studies\, race relations\, and contemporary popular culture. He is an assistant professor of African American Studies\, American Indian Studies\, and History at the University of California\, Los Angeles. He is the author of Hip Hop Beats\, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in Indigenous North America. \nRegister Here for Zoom Lecture
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/an-afro-indigenous-history-of-the-united-states/
CATEGORIES:Virtual Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2022/09/Afro-Indigenous-History-of-US-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220924T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220924T180000
DTSTAMP:20260430T125424
CREATED:20220901T224149Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220910T223433Z
UID:32571-1664035200-1664042400@thebatonfoundation.org
SUMMARY:The Revival of Proslavery Thought in America
DESCRIPTION:The Baton Foundation\, in partnership with the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History\, will host a lecture about the resurgence of proslavery thought in the United States. This program is funded by Atlanta Civic Site – The Annie E. Casey Foundation and is free to the public. Registration is required. \nAbout the Program\nIn this two-part talk\, Paul Finkelman will sketch out the nature of Pro-Slavery thought in the United States from the American Revolutionary War to the Civil War. In part one\, based primarily on his book\, Defending Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Old South\, Second Edition (Bedford/St. Martins\, 2020)\, he will note the many areas of knowledge that defenders of slavery used to justify the institution. These defenses were based on\, among other things: Biblical analysis and religion\, science and medicine (as they were understood at the time)\, economics\, law\, novels and poems\, sociology\, philosophy\, geography\, and political theory. Southern defenders of slavery — from Thomas Jefferson in the 1780s to Jefferson Davis in the 1860s — used these areas of knowledge to justify slavery as an institution–particularly the enslavement of Africans and their American-born descendants. \nOne critical aspect of the intellectual world of the slave South was the suppression of ideas and discussion in universities. Southern universities and colleges did not teach\, or even discuss\, issues that undermined slavery\, and effectively required professors to support slavery in their teaching and in their personal lives. By the eve the Civil War\, southern educators were demanding special textbooks that would reflect their support for racism and slavery. \nIn part two\, professor Finkelman will discuss how many of these arguments\, theories\, and strategies have been resurrected and are being used to defend suppression of speech\, a dishonest rewriting of history\, and voter suppression. These include state legislatures and governors trying to prevent schools from using such words as “slave” or “gay” in classrooms\, and preventing even universities from teaching controversial subjects\, such as critical race theory—and states demanding that textbooks reflect the ideology of suppression spreading from Florida to Texas. Finally\, Dr. Finkelman will show how the parallels between the 19th and 21st centuries are obvious\, and frightening. \nAbout the Speaker\nProfessor Finkelman received his B.A. in American Studies from Syracuse University and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. Later\, he was a Fellow in Law and Humanities at Harvard Law School. Professor Finkelman has held several endowed chairs as a tenured professor or as a visitor\, including the Ariel F. Sallows Chair in Human Rights Law at the University of Saskatchewan\, the John Hope Franklin Chair in American Legal History at Duke Law School\, and the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor at Albany Law School. In 2017 he held the Fulbright Chair in Human Rights and Social Justice at the University of Ottawa School of Law\, in Ottawa\, Canada and was also the John E. Murray Visiting Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Dr. Finkelman is the author of more than 200 scholarly articles and the author or editor of more than fifty books. His most recent book is\, Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court (Harvard University Press\, 2018). \nProfessor Finkelman has published in a wide variety of areas including American Jewish history\, American legal history\, constitutional law\, and legal issues regarding baseball. He has lectured on slavery\, human trafficking\, and human rights issues at the United Nations\, throughout the United States\, and in more than a dozen other countries. In 2014\, he was ranked the fifth most cited legal historian in American legal scholarship in Brian Leiter’s “Top Ten Law Faculty Scholarly Impact\, 2009-2013.” \nRegister Here for In-Person Event
URL:https://thebatonfoundation.org/event/the-revival-of-proslavery-thought-in-america/
LOCATION:Pittsburgh Yards\, 352 University Avenue\, SW\, Atlanta\, Georgia\, 30310
CATEGORIES:Lecture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thebatonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2022/09/Revival-of-proslavery-thought-70.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR