At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality:
The Emancipation Proclamation & the March on Washington


The year 2013 marks two important anniversaries in the history of African Americans and the United States. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation set the United States on the path of ending slavery. A wartime measure issued by President Abraham Lincoln, the proclamation freed relatively few slaves, but it fueled the fire of the enslaved to strike for their freedom. In many respects, Lincoln’s declaration simply acknowledged the epidemic of black self-emancipation – spread by black freedom crusaders like Harriet Tubman – that already had commenced beyond his control. Those in bondage increasingly streamed into the camps of the Union Army, reclaiming and asserting self-determination. The result, abolitionist Fredrick Douglass predicted, was that the war for the Union became a war against slavery. The actions of both Lincoln and the slaves made clear that the Civil War was in deed, as well as in theory, a struggle between the forces of slavery and emancipation. The full-scale dismantlement of the "peculiar institution" of human bondage had begun.

In 1963, a century later, America once again stood at the crossroads. Nine years earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had outlawed racial segregation in public schools, but the nation had not yet committed itself to equality of citizenship. Segregation and innumerable other forms of discrimination made second-class citizenship the extra-constitutional status of non-whites. Another American president caught in the gale of racial change, John F. Kennedy, temporized over the legal and moral issue of his time. Like Lincoln before him, national concerns, and the growing momentum of black mass mobilization efforts, overrode his personal ambivalence toward demands for black civil rights. On August 28, 1963, hundreds of thousands of Americans, blacks and whites, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, marched to the memorial of Abraham Lincoln, the author of the Emancipation Proclamation, in the continuing pursuit of equality of citizenship and self-determination. It was on this occasion that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech. Just as the Emancipation Proclamation had recognized the coming end of slavery, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom announced that the days of legal segregation in the United States were numbered.

Marking the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History invites papers, panels, and roundtables on these and related topics of black emancipation, freedom, justice and equality, and the movements that have sought to achieve these goals. Submissions may focus on the historical periods tied to the 2013 theme, their precursors and successors, and other past and contemporary moments across the breadth of African American history.

Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Scheduled Events

For additional information on events, please contact Errol Bolden at EBolden@coppin.edu.

February 7, 2013

Delivered by Dr. D. Zizwe Poe, Associate Professor of History in the Department of History and Political Science at Lincoln University.

The 2013 Carter G. Woodson Lecture

Coppin State University's Department of History, Geography, and Global Studies In Partnership with the Intellectual Life Committee cordially invites you to the 2013 Carter G. Woodson Lecture “From Emancipation to the March on Washington: A Pan-African Perspective”.

For more information, contact the Department of History, Geography, and Global Studies at (410) 951-3434 or (410) 951-3436.

Time: 11:00am
Location: Health & Human Services Building, Room 103

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Join us as we commemorate National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day at Coppin State University!

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

There will be free & anonymous HIV testing & counseling. Gift cards will be given to the first 25 persons who are tested. Free lunch will be provided to all who attend the panel discussion.

This event is sponsored by the Campus Wellness Project of Coppin State University, which is a grant program funded by the Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.

Time: 12:30pm
Location: Health & Human Services Building, 3rd Floor Atrium

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February 8 - 10, 2013

Coppin Presents Lydia R. Diamond's Harriet Jacobs, Based On A True Story.

Return Engagement of Harriet Jacobs

Harriet Jacobs, by Lydia R. Diamond, is the story of a remarkable woman's resistance to oppression as a slave during Pre-Civil War America.

Times:

  • Friday, February 8th at 8:00pm
  • Saturday, February 9th at 2:00pm
  • Saturday, February 9th at 8:00pm
  • Sunday, February 10th at 3:00pm
Location: Theatre Lab
More Information

Date To Be Announced

An Evening of Freedom Music: From Slavery to Today

Various groups will be performing. A light reception will follow as we discussion to power of music to heal.

Time: 5:30pm to 7:45pm
Location: To be announced

February 21, 2013

His story, His fall, His VICTORY, The Untold Story of Cornelius McDonald Jr.

“His story, His fall, His VICTORY” (The Untold Story of Cornelius McDonald Jr.)

To turn in a life full of promise for a future of the unfamiliar is usually a death trap waiting to happen, especially for a young adult male raised in a single-family home. Born in Washington, D.C. in one of the toughest neighborhoods known to the immediate areas and the outskirts of District of Columbia; Sursum Corda & 901 Nolia (Golden Rule Apts.) A young boy with no father from the age of 2 years old plays in the hood with his friends without a care in the world. Gunshots can be heard through out the dead of night and the next morning bodies found and shortly to follow, news reports of several arrest. Growing up in such a dangerous environment, Cornelius discovered an unthinkable act as his ONLY way out.

This is the unusual story of how a young man sacrificed the ultimate dream, in exchange to re-live a senseless murder and survived.

Time: Noon
Location: Health & Human Services Building, Room 103

February 24, 2013

Untitled, Painting by Luke Shaw

Legacy: Celebrating Luke Shaw

The Cary Beth Cryor Gallery of Coppin State University presents LEGACY, an exhibit celebrating the life and work of Dr. Luke Shaw (1928 - 1997), scholar, artist, and founding member of the Coppin State University Department of Visual and Performing Arts. This intimate exhibition of Shaw's innovative paintings also features the work of Ernest Shaw, a Coppin Instructor, and nephew of Luke Shaw. Together, these diverse and important works honor our history and break new ground for the legacy of Coppin State University.

Time: 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Cary Beth Cryor Gallery, James Weldon Johnson Auditorium

February 28

The Annual Market Place.

The Market Place

Sale of various reasonably priced gift items such as jewelry, clothes, oils, creams, paintings, candles, foods etc.

Time: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Location: Tawes Center

March 11, 2013

Award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt explores the health advantages and disadvantages of soul food, a quintessential American cuisine.

Documentary: “Soul Food Junkies”

A Free Community Film Screening and Discussion with Filmmaker Byron Hurt on the Black Community’s culinary tradition of “Soul Food”

Time: 6:00pm – 7:30pm
Location: HHSB, Room 103
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Presented by: University College/First Year Experience & CSU African American History Month Committee
Contact: Moshe Selassie
mselassie@coppin.edu
(410) 951-1262