LOUISIANA RECONSTRUCTION CONFERENCE

THIRTY YEARS OF STRUGGLE: Securing and Maintaining Freedmen’s Political Rights

SAVE THE DATE!!!

Louisiana Public History Forum (LPHF)

Conference Registration

$40 Advance / $50 Door / $20 Students w/ID

Friday, June 28 & Saturday, June 29, 2013

Gallier Hall

545 St. Charles Avenue * New Orleans, LA

New Orleans Reconstruction Tour Option

Sunday, June 30, 2013

2013 CALL FOR PAPERS

LOUISIANA RECONSTRUCTION CONFERENCE

THIRTY YEARS OF STRUGGLE: Securing and Maintaining Freedmen’s Political Rights

MISSION

The Louisiana Public History Forum (LPHF) is an alliance of organizations and individuals that develops educational programs to engage scholars, teachers, students, citizens, and the public in discussions about the history of Slavery, Freedom, and Resistance.

PURPOSE

The history of African descended people during the Reconstruction Era in Louisiana remains greatly understudied and poorly understood. This conference will provide a bridge of knowledge that will begin to fill the gaps in the understanding of the scope of African Americans’ contributions to the struggle for equality: the right to public education, the right to pursue one’s own livelihood, the right to acquire and own land, and the right to access public accommodations. In contrast to much misinformation in history now promoted in general, especially in textbooks used in public schools, this conference will also serve as a vehicle to engage with the public in the dispelling of the untruths of African descended people. Through expert and knowledgeable presenters utilizing primary sources, independent research, documents and not readily accessible materials, the conference will serve as an invaluable resource to cultivate a knowledgeable understanding of authentic African and African-American history.

OBJECTIVES

The Louisiana Public History Forum presents: THIRTY YEARS OF STRUGGLE: Securing and Maintaining Freedmen’s Political Rights, it’s first in a series of public programs designed by the Forum to educate the public about the people, events and landmarks associated with the era known as Reconstruction. The period of Reconstruction in Louisiana began with Emancipation in 1865 and ended with the last Black Louisiana legislator holding office in 1895. The conference will dispel the myths surrounding this thirty-year period of history and advance the public’s knowledge about the advancements and contributions of people of African descent during this time.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Monday, December 31, 2012

For more information contact:

Linda Hill - linda.lmarie@gmail.com

For Abstract/Presentation details, please go to our website

www.Louisiana-Public-History-Forum.org

LPHF Organizing Committee: Kathe Hambrick-Jackson, MA, Founding Director & CEO of the River Road African-American Museum, Donaldsonville, LA; Don Hernandez, JD, PhD, Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA; Linda Hill, MA, Curator and Archivist of the Center for African and African-American Studies, Southern University at New Orleans, LA; Jari Honora, Public Historian and Genealogist, New Orleans, LA; Claudette L. Smith-Brown, MA, MA, Historian and Genealogical Researcher, Baton Rouge, LA; and Leon A. Waters, Chairperson, Louisiana Museum of African American History, New Orleans, LA

LOUISIANA RECONSTRUCTION CONFERENCE

JUNE 28-30, 2012 • NEW ORLEANS

An Historical Overview

On December 30, 1909, William Edward Burghardt DuBois became the first African American to address an annual meeting of the American Historical Association. Dr. DuBois selected as his subject, "Reconstruction and its Benefits." In delivering his paper, he noted that, “Practically the whole new growth of the South has been accomplished under laws which black men helped to frame thirty years ago. I know of no greater compliment to Negro suffrage.” When he explored the era further in his opus magnum, Black Reconstruction in America, DuBois further set out to disprove the “propaganda of history,” that African American leaders were ignorant, dishonest, and unable to govern. He attributed the pervasive historiographical treatment of Reconstruction of that day to those who could not “conceive Negroes as men,” and in whose minds “Negro” connoted “inferiority and stupidity.” DuBois’ groundbreaking work was published in 1935, only twenty short years after the release of the dramatic film Birth of a Nation. This work of popular culture, which championed the Ku Klux Klan as restorers of the South after the perils of Reconstruction, only solidified the view of Reconstruction held by the Dunning School of thought. The Conference holds that the era of Reconstruction was indeed an age when the conception of African Americans as men and citizens was a present and active reality rather than a deferred and passive ideal. Following the close of the Civil War, African American men returned from the fields of war and rose from the fields of labor to exercise democracy for the first time. Granted suffrage, they elected candidates from among their numbers, enacted legislation, and passed constitutions which guaranteed free public education.

The freed men and women were possessed with a thirst to be well-equipped for life and for citizenship, a knowledge which DuBois calls “too persistent and durable to be mere curiosity or whim.” Nearly two-thirds of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities date their establishment to the Reconstruction era. This was due to contributions from missionary interests of religious denominations, both Black and White, as well as the Morrill-Land Grant Acts and private philanthropy. As an example of the progress made, at the conclusion of the nineteenth-century, New Orleans alone had four degree-granting African American universities.

Historian William Montgomery avers that, “The church was the most powerful and important social institution in the black community during the crucial Reconstruction period.” The formation of their own congregations allowed African American men and women the opportunity to cultivate leadership, to build bonds of community, and to worship free from harassment and interference. Churches served as centers for political activity, social service work, and education.

The formation of associations and societies for mutual aid, benevolence, and social interaction has always been of great importance in building communities. They have been especially important to marginalized groups of people such as ethnic/racial minorities, immigrants, religious minorities, and women. These associations encouraged civic participation, bred leadership, offered tangible and intangible benefits in case of death and illness, and erected halls where free association and political activity could take place.

The Conference has a special focus on Reconstruction in Louisiana. Louisiana’s history throughout the periods of Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction is worthy of immense interest and is lacking in wide-range scholarship. Abraham Lincoln held high hopes for reconstructing Louisiana. Cognizant of the Unionist element in the state, he tasked General Nathaniel P. Banks with encouraging the state to form a new Unionist government which met the requirements of the Ten Percent Plan. Louisiana was among the first states to ratify a state constitution which outlawed slavery. On March 13, 1864, President Lincoln recommended to the newly-elected Governor of Louisiana that limited suffrage might be granted to black men. Just a day before, President Lincoln had received a delegation of two free men of color from New Orleans, who presented him with a petition signed by nearly 1,000 free Black men who sought the right to vote.

The petition implored its reader to:

“… Cast your eyes upon a loyal population awaiting with confidence and dignity the proclamation of those inalienable rights which belong to the condition of citizens of the Great American Republic. Theirs is but a feeble voice claiming attention in the midst of the grave questions raised by this terrible conflict, yet confident of the justice which guides the action of the Government, they have no hesitation in speaking what is prompted by their hearts, ‘We are men, treat us as such.’”

The loyal population to which the petition referred was known as les gens de couleurs libres, or free people of color, numbered roughly 11,000 during the Civil War. Having been present since the first decade of New Orleans's existence; by the time of the Civil War, they, by self-estimation, paid more than $15,000,000 annually in taxes.

The free colored population along with their newly-freed brethren positioned themselves to be ready to accept the opportunities of a reconstructed state as soon as they were presented. More African American men, numbering over 24,000, joined the Union ranks from Louisiana than any other state. Louisiana was home to the first African American daily newspaper in the country, La Tribune de la Nouvelle-Orléans, which began in 1864. The first mayor of color in the United States, Pierre Caliste Landry was elected in 1868. The first lieutenant governor of color, Oscar James Dunn, was elected in Louisiana that same year. Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback assumed the office of Governor of Louisiana in 1872, making him the first person of color to hold that office as well.

It is recognized, that “the new growth of the South,” of which DuBois wrote, occurred not only within the statehouse, but also on a micro-level within the civil parishes and within religious bodies, educational institutions, organizations, labor, and business. It is also recognized that women played an active role in Reconstruction, be it Josephine Dubuclet Decuir, for example, who in 1872 lodged one of the country’s first civil rights cases, or Nina Hawthorne Pinchback, the wife of the Governor and woman whose social grace and culture was of great service to her husband’s career. All attempts to convey the history of this important, but often-forgotten, period in the state’s history are welcomed.

While Reconstruction is generally dated from the fall of New Orleans to Union hands in 1862 to the removal of federal troops in 1877, the Conference extends the timeline of Reconstruction to 1895, the year the last African American left the State Legislature. Though the end of the Reconstruction Era came in 1895, African Americans in many parishes continued to hold local positions and to participate in Republican politics in large number until the late 1920s and did not effectually cease until after the Second World War. This period was not a "nadir," but a period when the advances made during Reconstruction were built upon and the losses were constantly sought to be regained.

2013 CALL FOR PAPERS

THIRTY YEARS OF STRUGGLE: Securing and Maintaining Freedmen’s Political Rights

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Monday, December 31, 2012

Presentation Criteria: Clarity of ideas and content is essential as it relates to the Mission, Purpose, and Objectives of the Forum.

Topic: Select one of the session topics below as the theme for your presentation:

Ì Economic Development

Ì Education

Ì Church and Fraternal Societies / Organizations

Ì Land Rights

Ì Public Accommodations

Ì Voting Rights and Black Male Suffrage

Submission I: Please include the following information typed in provided format:

Name

Title / Position

Affiliation(s)

Address

Telephone Fax

Email

Abstract / Presentation Title:

Anticipated AV Needs – Please circle Slide Projector Power Point Projector TV & VCR / DVD Player EASEL(S) Flip Chart Other

Submission II: A 250 word maximum BIOGRAPHY

Submission III: A 300 word maximum ABSTRACT of your presentation that clearly describes your topic, position, and presentation.

All three (3) sections must be submitted electronically in one (1) pdf file package, no later than

12:00 midnight, Monday, December 31, 2012 to linda.lmarie@gmail.com

The Presentation Committee will notify all submitters of their results and status no later than January 31, 2013.

Conference registration and ALL travel accommodations and expenses are to be incurred by participants.

ONLINE Registration for the Conference will begin April 1, 2013 at our website: www.Louisiana-Public-History-Forum.org