African American History Lecture Marks First Decade

January 27, 2025 by ljudy

For a decade the annual Fleming-Morrow Distinguished Lecture has been honoring pioneering professors at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, while bringing nationally recognized scholars of African American history to campus.

On March 6, 2025, organizers are marking the 10^th anniversary with a daylong symposium that will feature two morning panels of scholars discussing their latest research on African American history and a luncheon conversation with the professors who inspired the endowed lecture, in addition to the keynote speaker.

The lecture not only demonstrates UT’s commitment to African American history but also provides an opportunity for students to see diverse scholars who are professional historians, explained history Associate Professor Brandon Winford, who co-founded the event with Shannen Dee Williams. She is now an associate professor of history at the University of Dayton. 

“We wanted to recognize and honor the Black faculty members in our department who were pioneers and helped to blaze a trail for future Black faculty members at the university and became nationally renowned for their work,” he said. The lecture also recognizes that understanding Black history is important for students who will be part of a global community.  

The lecture offers a broad umbrella to explore topics related to African American history and has brought in scholars with groundbreaking research. “Our faculty, staff, students, and wider campus and Knoxville communities have been exposed or introduced to historical topics that might have otherwise gone overlooked,” Winford said.

The free, public lecture has received wide support from sponsors across campus through the years and drawn interest from the local community as well.  

Professor Emerita Cynthia Griggs Fleming, a distinguished historian of the civil rights movement, was one of the first black women faculty members in the UT College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and the first in the Department of History. John Morrow Jr., now professor emeritus at the University of Georgia, was the first African American faculty member in CAS and has received a lifetime achievement award for his writing on military history.

Both will return to the UT campus for the symposium this year. 

“Drs. Morrow and Fleming are not only excellent historians, but they are full of stories from their own experiences in higher education, and so the opportunity to have them speak about their own lives and especially navigating this space at a time when opportunities for Black scholars at historically white institutions were just opening up is quite special,” Winford said.

The keynote speaker will be Crystal R. Sanders, associate professor of African American studies at Emory University. Her lecture is titled “Pursuing ‘Their Highest Potential’: Black Southerners and Graduate Education During the Era of Legal Segregation.”

The morning panelists will explore research on the African American experience as it relates to military history, women’s history, the Black power movement, Nashville, and more. One of the panelists will be UT history alumna Le’Trice Donaldson (BA ’03, MA ’06), who is now an assistant professor of history at Auburn University.

Winford said he hopes the 10th anniversary will be an opportunity to grow the Fleming-Morrow African-American History Endowment. To support the endowment, donate here.

By Amy Beth Miller