Panel Discussion: Slavery, Amherst College And Black Lives In The Connecticut River Valley

Source: Amherst College

Amherst College will host a panel discussion on Slavery, Amherst College and Black Lives in the Connecticut River Valley on Tuesday April 11 , 7:00 p.m. -8:30 p.m. in the Cole Assembly Room of Converse Hall at the college. The event is free and open to the public. The event will be recorded and made available on line shortly afterwards.

The panelests include:
Michael Elliott, President of Amherst College
Mike Kelly, co-chair of the Steering Committee on A Racial History of Amherst College and Head of Archives and Special Collections
Mike Jirik, postdoctoral research fellow, A Racial History of Amherst College
Anika Lopes, Ancestral Bridges Foundation and Amherst Town Councilor
Erika Slocumb, Ph.D. student of Black studies at UMass Amherst

Presenters will share their current research, followed by a larger Q&A discussion, including opportunities for student involvement in further research.

The questions that will guide the discussion are as follows:

What is Amherst College’s historical relationship to slavery and racism? How have Black people in Amherst and Holyoke resisted oppression and built communities and vibrant cultures? The Steering Committee on A Racial History of Amherst College project invites you to a panel discussion of the College’s historical ties to slavery and racism, and histories of Black life in Amherst and Holyoke.

Background
In the Amherst College Anti-Racism Plan, released in August 2020, then-President Biddy Martin called for a historical study of the College’s ties to slaveholding and to capital accumulation based on slavery, as well as a racial history of the College extending into present times. To do that, President Martin formed a Steering Committee on the Racial History of Amherst College. This work began in January 2021 and, in September 2022, Mike Jirik began work as the first Racial History Research Fellow.

Ancestral Bridges supports and builds programs that celebrate BIPOC arts, history and culture in Western Massachusetts. They also partner with local communities to create educational and economic opportunities so that BIPOC and disadvantaged youth can thrive. An exhibition of historic photographs curated by Ancestral Bridges is on view in Frost Library through the end of summer 2023.

Documenting the Early History of Black Lives in the Connecticut River Valley is a community-based research project in Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin Counties. The project aims to document the lives of free, enslaved and formerly enslaved Black residents of the Connecticut River Valley prior to 1900. Participating historical organizations, in collaboration with student and volunteer researchers, are performing a “deep dive” into their archival holdings.