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Frank Dukes joined seven other representatives from the University of Virginia’s UCARE (University & Community Action for Racial Equity) project at the conference "Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies" from February 3-6. The conference was hosted by Emory University and its Transforming Community Project*, an ongoing effort instituted by Emory in 2005 to examine its history as well as its current practices related to race.
Dr. Dukes presented individual papers at a panel titled “Researching and Teaching Slavery at the University of Virginia.” Dr. Dukes offered an overview of the purposes, structure, and intention of the UCARE project, exploring ways to engage the communities of the university and the city of Charlottesville to repair the “unrightable wrongs” of the past.
The conference keynote was offered by Brown University President Ruth Simmons, who was joined by the Emory President, Provost and other ranking officials in discussing issues raised by slavery and its ongoing legacy.
The conference included panels examining their universities’relationship with slavery from William and Mary, Emory, Harvard, Brown, Clemson, the College of Charleston, and the Universities of
North Carolina, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina and others. UVA participants were pleased to see the recognition offered to their efforts and to those of their colleagues at the College of William & Mary, whose Lemon project (named after a former worker enslaved by the College) has garnered significant financial and staff support from university officials.
Conference sessions were videotaped and will be available on You Tube. Conference proceedings also will be collected and published.
* The Transforming Community Project seeks to mobilize individuals in every sector of Emory University in a reflective, fact-driven engagement with the University’s history and current experiences of race, gender, sexuality and other forms of human difference at Emory and beyond. These activities provide opportunities to develop new, concrete strategies to transform the University. All members of the Emory community (staff, faculty, students and alumni) are invited to participate in Community Dialogues; to develop research projects related to Emory’s history and current experiences around diversity; and to use these dialogue and research experiences to effect change in the community at large.