Centennial Symposium

Room A: Literature and Signification
Chair: Dr. Leonard Deutsch, Professor Emeritus of English, Marshall University

“‘Champion of Liberty!’ Discovering Bessie Woodson Yancey’s Life, Poetry, and Political Voice”
Dr. Katharine Capshaw, Professor of English and Social and Critical Inquiry, University of Connecticut

“Erasure, Amputation, and Regeneration: The Strange Case of A Gathering of Old Men”
Dr. Joel Peckham, Associate Professor of English, Marshall University

“Signifying in Language and Literature”
Dr. Delores Johnson, Professor Emerita of English, Marshall University

Comment: Dr. Carol Taylor Johnson, Professor of English, West Virginia State University

Room B: Black Innovation in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences
Chair: Dr. Clinton Arnold, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Business, West Virginia State University

“Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and the 1900 Paris Exposition”
Sandra Reed, Professor of Art, Marshall University

“Primitive doesn’t always mean primal, and other tips for Blues historians”
Edward Komara, Distinguished Librarian, State University of New York at Potsdam

“Black West Virginia Scientists”
Dr. Anna Mummert, Associate Dean of the College of Science, Marshall University

Comment: Dr. Gregory Breeden, Assistant Professor of Health Sciences, Marshall University

Room A: Black Appalachian History, Preservation, and Information Access
Chair: Ms. Beverly Gray, Co-founder David Nickens Heritage Center

“The Black Appalachian Cultural Center: Creating a Cultural Heritage Tourism Sector
in Southern West Virginia”
Dr. Cicero M. Fain, III, Assistant Provost for Access and Opportunity, Marshall University

“Huntington, West Virginia’s Black City: How Segregation Shaped a Community, 1938-1965”
Ms. Jillian Kendell, M.A. student, Public History, West Virginia University

“Hidden in Plain Sight: The Role of Academic Libraries and LibGuides in Preserving and Promoting Black Appalachian History”
Ms. Tomeka Jackson, Linked Data Librarian, Assistant Professor, Middle Tennessee State University and Ms. Sahara Scott, Global Black Studies Librarian, Brown University

Comment: Dr. Billy Joe Peyton, Professor of History Emeritus, West Virginia State University

Room B: Gender and Identity
Chair: Dr. Jennifer Robinette, Drinko Academy and Simon Perry Center Program Coordinator, Marshall University

“From the Monster to the Victim?  Blackfishing and White Women Tears”
Dr. Julie Snyder-Yuly, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Marshall University

“Travelling Through this World: Black and Multiracial Motorcycle Clubs in Appalachia”
Dr. Kelli Johnson, Professor, Marshall University Libraries and
Dr. Paul Robertson, Assistant Professor of English, Marshall University

Comment: The audience

Honoring a Century of Scholarship: The Journal of African American History
Welcome by Marshall President Brad Smith, Comments by Professor Burnis Morris and Dr. Montserrat Miller.  Presentation by: Dr. Bertis English, Professor of History, Alabama State University, editor, The Journal of African American History, “Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Carter G. Woodson and the Development of The Journal of African American History”

Symposium Lunch reservations required: contact Jennifer Robinette. jennifer.robinette@marshall.edu

Room A: Roundtable Discussion
The Historical Significance and Agency of Black Fraternity and Sorority Organizations
Moderator: Mr. William Smith, Jr., Marshall University Board of Governors (Kappa Alpha Psi)

Former West Virginia State Senator Marie Redd (Alpha Kappa Alpha)

Ms. Debra Hart, President, Co-Motion (Delta Sigma Theta)

Mr. Corey Cunningham, Associate Director of Student Life, Marshall University (Omega Psi Phi)

Room B: Initiatives Addressing Black Public Health and Community Wellbeing
Chair: Dr. Anthony Woart, Chair, Department of Public Health, Marshall University

“The ‘Science’ of Racism: The Shame Psychology Must Acknowledge”
Dr. David Jett Pittenger, Professor of Psychology, Marshall University

“Black Health in Appalachia-Coal Mining in West Virginia and the Associated Health Outcomes for African Americans”
Dr. Georgiana Logan, Associate Professor of Health Sciences, Marshall University

“When Women are Not Heard: Health, Power, and Resilience in Appalachia”
Dr. Paris Johnson, Marshall University

Comment: Dr. Onyechi Magafu, Medical Director, St. Mary’s Medical Center Pain Relief Program, Marshall Health Network

Wilson University Union, Room 134
Welcome by: West Virginia State University President Ericke Cage

Comments by: Professor Burnis R. Morris, Director of The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum and Co-Chair of the American Milestone Celebration Committee, and by Dr. Montserrat Miller, Executive Director, John Deaver Drinko Academy for American Political Institutions and Civic Culture.

Recitations: Precious Fagbenro and Isaiah Ray

Keynote address: “A Family-Focused, Place-Based, Framework to Address Poverty
Across West Virginia” Rev. Matthew J. Watts I, Senior Pastor, Grace Bible Church,
founder of Hope Community Development Corporation

Wilson University Union, Room 134
From Abolition to Integration: Case Studies from the 19th and 20th Centuries

Chair: Mr. Maurice R. Cooley, V.P./Dean, Intercultural and Student Affairs, Emeritus & Founding Director, Marshall University Society of Black Scholars

“How the Vanguards of Abolition Defied the Spiral of Silence about Slavery in America”
Dr. Jennifer Robinette, Drinko Academy and Simon Perry Center Program Coordinator, Marshall University

“Frederick Douglass, Journalist”
Professor Dan Hollis, Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications, Marshall University

“William J. L. Wallace: The Man of the Hour”
Dr. Carol Taylor Johnson, Professor of English, West Virginia State University

Comment: Mr. David Harris, Marshall Health Network Board Member and Community Organizer

Wilson University Union, West Virginia State University

Drinko Library Room 138
High School and College Essay and Poster Design Winners

Chair: Dr. Montserrat Miller, Executive Director, John Deaver Drinko Academy for American Political Institutions and Civic Culture

Lucile Maroux, 1st Place, 2026 Black History Centennial High School Poster Competition

Kim Arden, 1st Place, 2026 Black History Centennial College Poster Competition

Baylee Parsons, 1st Place, 2026 Black History Centennial College Essay Contest
“Counting on Freedom: Katherine Johnson’s Equation for a More Perfect Union”

Comment: Ms. Alicia Gray, Ross County Historical Society

Drinko Library 138
Pedagogies of Race, Pedagogies of Care
Chair and comment: Dr. Eric Lassiter, Director of Graduate Humanities, Marshall University 

“Race All Around Us: Historical Monuments and the Politics of Public Memory”
Dr. Anthony Kwame Harrison, Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies, Virginia Tech

“Learning from the Community at the Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures
Public Humanities Field School”
Dr. Arijit Sen, Associate Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

“Centering Students’ Stories in and about K-12 Schools”
Ms. Anna L. Osborne, English Language Specialist, Greenbrier County Schools

Drinko Library Atrium
Approaching the Bicentennial of America’s Black Press and Making the Centennial of Negro History Week/Black History Month a Reality
Chair: Ms. Crystal Good, Founder and publisher of Black By God

“Revisiting Carter G. Woodson’s Harvard Years through The History Makers Digital
Archive: Reframing the Foundations of Black Historical Consciousness”
Dr. Zebulon Vance Miletsky, Associate Professor of Africana Studies,
Stony Brook University

“Black History Month in the Contemporary Black Press”
Dr. George Daniels, Associate Professor of Journalism and Creative Media,
University of Alabama

“Enabling Woodson: How the Black Press Helped Popularize Black History”
Professor Burnis Morris, Journalism and Mass Communications,
Director of The Dr. Carter Woodson Lyceum, Marshall University

“Discredit, Disrupt, and Destroy: Federal Attempts to Intimidate and Suppress the
Black Press”
Dr. Rob Rabe, Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Journalism, Fort Lewis College

Comment: Ms. Jacqueline Proctor, Deputy Director of the West Virginia Bureau of
Senior Services

Joan C. Edwards Playhouse
Dr. Ollie Watts Davis and the University of Illinois Black Chorus
“Yet with a Steady Beat: The Sacred Music of Black Americans since 1619”

Dr. Davis’s address and the choir’s performance will reflect the enduring and steady
contribution of Black American music to the world. For centuries, this music has
moved with purpose and mission; guiding, guarding, and gracing its creators and
all who encounter it. The program will draw from the full expression of Black
Sacred Music, including Spirituals, art songs, hymns, anthems, and traditional and
contemporary gospel, bearing witness to a living tradition whose pulse continues to
shape communities across generations and across the globe. The choir will perform
selections by composers including Stacey V. Gibbs, Margaret Bonds, Judith Christie
McAllister, Quandra L. Clark, original compositions by Dr. Ollie Watts Davis, and
many more. Featuring Mike Campbell, pianist.

Free tickets available at the Joan C. Edwards Box Office: 304-696-6656