Conference: Independent Colleges and the Legacies of Slavery

Tennille Nicole Allen is professor and chair of sociology at Lewis University (Romeoville, IL) and the lead faculty member for the university’s work as a Regional Collaboration Partner in the Legacies network. Her primary teaching and research interests are in the intersections of race, class, gender, identity, and place. She also engages and teaches experiential learning courses in community-based participatory research in communities in Joliet and Chicago.  

David Blight is Sterling Professor of History, of African American Studies, and of American Studies and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He also serves as director of the CIC Legacies of American Slavery initiative. In 2019, his biography of Frederick Douglass won the Pulitzer Prize for History.

Jamelle Bouie has served as a New York Times Opinion columnist covering covers history and politics since 2019. He previously served as the chief political correspondent for Slate magazine.

Brandon Cates teaches high school social studies in the Denison, Texas, public school district. He has participated in professional development workshops offered by Austin College. Cates was named Denison ISD Secondary Teacher of the Year in 2018.

Richard Cellini is the director of the Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program and is founding director of the 10 Million Names Project. Previously, he founded and led the Georgetown Memory Project, an independent research initiative that identified more than 10,000 descendants of enslaved people. Cellini is an attorney, a business executive, and scholar of institutional accountability for slavery.

Christopher Ciochetti is associate professor and chair of the philosophy department at Centenary College of Louisiana (Shreveport, LA), where his work as a philosopher often extends into the community. As part of Centenary’s contribution to the Legacies network, Ciochetti taught a new undergraduate course on bioethics, helped develop tours of local sites that illustrate the history of health disparities by race, and led a teaching circle devoted to health and the legacies of slavery.   

Elizabeth Davis is the 12th president of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Under her leadership, the university has launched the Furman Advantage program, which includes the Joseph A. Vaughn Scholarship, a merit-based scholarship awarded to Black and African American students. Furman is currently investigating its historical connections to slavery through its Seeking Abraham Project.

Hilary Green is the James B. Duke Professor of Africana Studies at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. Her work explores the intersections of race, class, and gender in pre-1920 African American history, Reconstruction Studies, and Civil War Memory. Professor Green created the Hallowed Grounds Project for exploring the history of race, slavery, and memory at the University of Alabama and the post-emancipation developments in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Charles McKinney is the Neville Frierson Bryan Chair of Africana Studies and associate professor of History at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. His primary research interests include the Civil Rights Movement and the exploration of local social movements.  Professor McKinney has produced two books: Greater Freedom: The Evolution of the Civil Rights Struggle in Wilson, North Carolina (2010), and is co-editor of An Unseen Light: Black Struggles for Freedom in Memphis, Tennessee (2018).

David McLennan is professor of political science at Meredith College (Raleigh, NC), where he also directs the statewide Meredith Poll and authors an annual “Status of Women in North Carolina Politics” report. As part of Meredith’s contribution to the Legacies network, he has directed the annual Voices of Change Political Institute, which is designed to support Black women and women of color — including current college students —who are interested in seeking political office.

Tiffany Momon is an assistant professor of history at Sewanee: The University of the South. As a public historian, Momon’s work includes advocating to city and state governments in support of local history projects and archaeology ordinances and partnering with local communities to document and preserve their history. As part of Sewanee’s contribution to the Legacies network, she helped develop the Locating Slavery’s Legacies database. 

Cheryl Moore-Thomas serves as the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland. has been instrumental in helping the institution unveil its hidden truths about its connection to slavery. Thomas previously served as Loyola Maryland’s chief equity and inclusion officer and dean of the School of Education, among other roles.

Andre M. Perry is a Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro, a scholar-in-residence at American University, and a professor of practice of economics at Washington University. A nationally known and respected commentator on race, structural inequality, and education, Perry is the author of the book Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities.

Yolanda Pierce is a scholar, writer, womanist theologian, and accomplished administrator in higher education. She was appointed the Founding Director of the Center for African American Religious Life at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She currently serves as Professor and Dean of the Vanderbilt Divinity School.

Kirt von Daacke is a research professor at the University of Virginia. A scholar of slavery and race in American history, von Daacke has led the UVA President’s Commissions on Slavery and the University (PCSU) and the University in the Age of Segregation (PCUAS), serves as managing director of the Universities Studying Slavery consortium, and directs UVA’s Gibbons Project.  His publications include Freedom Has a Face: Race, Identity, and Community in Jefferson’s Virginia and the UVA President’s Commission on Slavery and the University 2018 Report.