A symposium exploring freedom politics and the African-American experience from the Jim Crow era through the present will be held at Duke University’s John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) on Wednesday, April 14.

The event takes place from 1:30–7 p.m. at the John Hope Franklin Center, Room 240. The symposium is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

“As we seek to continue to build on and sustain Dr. Franklin’s remarkable legacy we’re delighted to have the opportunity to host this symposium on Freedom Politics,” said Ian Baucom, professor of English and FHI director. “In addition to welcoming the distinguished set of panelists, we’re also particularly excited to have had the chance to invite a group of undergraduate students from our peer HBCU institutions and Duke to participate in the symposium. We’re greatly looking forward to a rich and vital set of conversations.”

The symposium is the second annual event marking the residential research fellowship program at FHI for faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This year’s FHI fellows are Rhonda Jones from North Carolina Central University and Dirk Philipsen from Virginia State University.

The symposium takes place one day before the SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) 50th Anniversary Conference at Shaw University in Raleigh. The FHI is hosting a group of students from HBCUs to attend both the Freedom Politics symposium and the SNCC conference. Following the two events, the students will reconvene at Duke to reflect on their participation in these events and on the past, present and future of student activism.

The event is sponsored by the FHI, the John Hope Franklin Research Center at the Duke University Libraries, and the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture at Duke.

To register for the symposium, send an email to fhi@duke.edu. For additional information, visit fhi.duke.edu.