NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Three African American women who undermined prejudices about race and gender in the 19th century by pursuing an education in the classics will be profiled during a lecture marking Women‘s History Month at Vanderbilt University.
Shelley P. Haley, professor of classics and Africana studies and director of Africana studies at Hamilton College, will speak at 4:10 p.m. Wednesday, March 16, in 311 Furman Hall on the Vanderbilt campus.
The lecture, “19th Century Black Women Classicists,” is free and open to the public. It is part of the Smoke, Lilies and Jade spring series sponsored by The Program in African American Studies. Haley‘s lecture is co-sponsored by Vanderbilt‘s Department of Classical Studies.
Haley will tell the story of three African American women who were among the first to earn bachelors of arts in America following emancipation: Fanny Jackson Coppin, Anna Julia Cooper and Mary Church Terrell.
“Each of these women realized that they had a unique responsibility, and they perceived that education, by default a classical education at that time, was the tool of liberation for their class and sex,” Haley said. “Women capable of leadership strove to falsify racist and sexist assumptions that informed their society.”
The Smoke, Lilies and Jade Lecture Series was named after a short story by Harlem Renaissance writer Richard Bruce that dealt with gender, race and sexuality. The aim of the series is to emulate Bruce by boldly addressing the complexity of subjects in African American studies.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu