The University of Tennessee history department is co-sponsoring a community discussion on “Talking Jim Crow: Race Relations in East Tennessee” at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27, at the East Tennessee Historical Society, 600 Market St.
Civil rights activists, teachers and authors from East Tennessee and UT history faculty will lead the discussion. The event and reception are free and open to the public.
The program includes panel discussion on the region’s history and progress in race relations for the last 40 years and clips from the recent PBS documentary, “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.”
Co-sponsors are the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, the East Tennessee Historical Society, the Knoxville Area Urban League, the Knoxville branch of the NAACP, Knoxville Project Change, the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Commission, the National Conference for Community and Justice, and UT’s Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, history department and Office of Equity and Diversity.
George White, UT assistant professor of history and a Knoxville native, is moderator. Panelists include:
Robert J. Booker, three-time state legislator, former executive director of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, Knoxville-s Museum of Black History and Culture, and author of “200 Years of Black Culture in Knoxville, Tennessee 1791-1991” and other books.
Cynthia Fleming, UT associate professor of history and author of “Soon We Will Not Cry: The Liberation of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson” and other books on the Civil Rights Movement.
Paul Fuller, a Knoxville College associate professor who teaches courses in sociology and criminal justice.
Carol Guthrie, a UT alum and associate attorney for Joyce, Meredith, Flitcroft & Normand in Oak Ridge.
Robert J. Norrell, who holds the Bernadotte Schmitt Chair of Excellence in history at UT and wrote “Reaping the Whirlwind: The Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee” which received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.
Avon William Rollins, director and CEO of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center.