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Join us August 22, 2019, from 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM EDT for Africa to America: The Odyssey of Slavery. The live, televised town hall presented by Voice of America - VOA and Norfolk State University commemorates the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans in North America.

Moderator


Peniel E. Joseph
Holds a joint professorship appointment at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the History Department in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin.

In Fall 2015, Peniel E. Joseph joined the University of Texas at Austin (UT) as Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. He received a joint professorship appointment at the LBJ School of Public Affairs as the Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values and at the History Department in the College of Liberal Arts. Prior to joining the UT faculty, Joseph was a professor at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where he also founded the school’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy to promote engaged research and scholarship focused on the ways issues of race and democracy impact the lives of global citizens. He received a B.A. from SUNY at Stony Brook and a Ph.D. from Temple University.

Joseph’s career focus has been on what he describes as “Black Power Studies,” which encompasses interdisciplinary fields such as Africana studies, law and
society, women’s and ethnic studies, and political science. He is a frequent national commentator on issues of race, democracy and civil rights, and has authored award-winning books Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America and Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama. Joseph’s most recent book, Stokely: A Life, has been called the definitive biography of Stokely Carmichael, the man who popularized the phrase “black power” and led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, known as the SNCC.

The recipient of fellowships from Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Ford Foundation, Joseph’s essays have appeared in The Journal of American History, The Chronicle Review, The New York Times, The Black Scholar, Souls, and American Historical Review. Joseph is a frequent contributor to Newsweek, The Root and Reuters, and, his articles, op-eds, and book reviews have been published in newspapers from The Washington Post to The New York Times. Joseph’s commentary has been featured on National Public Radio, The Colbert Report, PBS, and MSNBC.

 

Panelists


Cassandra Newby-Alexander
Dean of the Liberal Arts College at Norfolk State University

Cassandra Newby-Alexander is the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, professor of history, and director of the Joseph Jenkins Roberts Center for African Diaspora Studies at Norfolk State University.

Her book publications include Virginia Waterways and the Underground Railroad (2017), An African American History of the Civil War in Hampton Roads (2010), co-authored Black America Series: Portsmouth (2003), Hampton Roads: Remembering Our Schools (2009), and co-edited Voices from within the Veil: African Americans and the Experience of Democracy (2008).

To enhance her research interests and university service to students, Newby-Alexander has received grants totaling over $650,000. In addition, Newby-Alexander currently serves on the boards of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, the Virginia Law Foundation, the 2019 Commemoration Commission, Historical Commission of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Norfolk Sister City Association, and WHRO, a PBS-Affiliate.

Newby-Alexander has also appeared on a number of national symposia and television programs, and has consulted for numerous agencies and initiatives, including the American Civil War Museum, Casemate Museum at Fort Monroe, the Hampton History Museum, the Portsmouth Museums, the Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program, the Virginia Historical Society, Jamestown Settlement Museum, Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Commission, Virginia Humanities, and Historic Jamestowne.

 


Robert Trent Vinson
Associate Professor of History & Africana Studies at the College of William & Mary

Robert Trent Vinson is the Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Professor of History and Africana Studies at William & Mary. He received his Ph.D. in African History from Howard University. Vinson has written The Americans are Coming!: The Dream of African American Liberation in Segregationist South Africa (Ohio University Press, (2012) and Albert Luthuli: Mandela before Mandela (2018). Vinson is also the co-author of two additional books in preparation, Shaka’s Progeny: The Cultural Politics of Global Zulu Identities in the US and South Africa, and Crossing the Water: African Americans and South Africa, 1890-1965.

Vinson is currently Conference Project Leader for the biennial conference of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD), the leading professional organization of African Diaspora scholars. William & Mary will host this year’s conference (Nov.5-9, 2019), which will be a remembrance of the 1619 Africans that first arrived in English North America. Vinson is also ASWAD President-Elect, assuming office in November 2019.

Vinson also was founding co-director of the Lemon Project at William & Mary, a long-term research project named after Mr. Lemon, one of many enslaved blacks owned by William and Mary before the Civil War. The Lemon Project involves College faculty, staff and students as well as members of the Greater Williamsburg community. The project is actively meeting its objective to better understand, chronicle, and preserve the history of blacks at the College and in the community and to promote a deeper understanding of the indebtedness of the College to the work and support of its diverse neighbors.

Vinson lives in Williamsburg, Virginia with his wife and daughter.

 


Aimee Glocke
Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at California State University, Northridge

Aimee Glocke is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Northridge. She earned her M.A. in Afro-American Studies from UCLA and her Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University. Her research areas are: African/Black Literature, African/Black History, African/Black Psychology, and African/Black Dance. Some of the undergraduate and graduate classes she has taught include: Introduction to Black Studies and Black Culture; Race and Critical Thinking; The African/Black Aesthetic; Literature of American Enslavement; the African Diaspora; Blacks and Mass Media; African American History; and African Centered Writing. Glocke was a certified substitute teacher in grades K-12, and has taught children ages three years old to adult. As a scholar, she has published in The Encyclopedia of Black Studies; The Journal of Pan African Studies; Ofo: Journal of Transatlantic Studies; Overcoming Adversity: Stories from Generation X Faculty; The Huffington Post; co-edited The Journal of Pan African Studies’ special edition on African/Black Dance; and Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Glocke is also a professional dancer who has trained all over the country in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Modern, Katherine Dunham Technique, Umfundalai, and GROOV3. She also released a short documentary on the International Authentic Katherine Dunham Seminar.

 


Terry Brown
Superintendent of the Fort Monroe National Monument

Terry E. Brown is the Superintendent of Fort Monroe National Monument and a long-time veteran of the National Park Service (NPS), with more than 27 years in federal service. Under his leadership at Ft. Monroe, innovation is flourishing within youth initiatives that reach across all program areas including science, interpretation, natural resources, law enforcement, cultural resources and administration.

Brown’s NPS career began at Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River. He also served as an Interpretive Park Ranger at Independence National Historic Site and as a Supervisory Park Ranger at National Mall & Memorial Parks. Additionally, he detailed as Site Manager at Old Post Office Tower, as Chief of Interpretation and Education at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, as Superintendent of Springfield Armory National Historic Site, and as Chief of Interpretation and Education at Boston National Historical Park. Prior to joining Ft. Monroe, Brown served for more than five years as the Site Manager of the Boston African American National Historic Site.

Brown earned his Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice at Grambling State University. He is the recipient of several NPS awards and honors, including the Outstanding Service Award for 2004 Federal Executive Board of Excellence in Government with category of Improved Federal Image. Brown was also awarded the 2017 Community Service Award from the City of Hampton.

 


Gloria J. Browne-Marshall
Professor of Constitutional Law at John Jay College (CUNY)

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is a Professor of Constitutional Law at John Jay College and a member of the Gender Studies faculty. Prior to academia, she was a civil rights attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, and NAACP LDF. She speaks nationally and internationally on constitutional and human rights issues, generally, and of concern to women, children and people of color, in particular.

Her books include The Voting Rights War: The NAACP and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice, The U.S. Constitution: An African-­American Context, and Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present. Race, Law is the seminal book connecting racial justice over 400 years in the areas of education, voting rights, property rights, criminal justice, the military, and internationalism involving African-­Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans.

Browne-Marshall is Founder/Director of The Law and Policy Group, Inc., a 501(c)3 organization and think tank for the community which publishes The Report on the Status of Black Women and Girls, the only ongoing report on the state of black females in America.

Browne-Marshall is a U.S. Supreme Court correspondent. Her award-winning syndicated column is published in newspapers in New York City, Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, and St. Louis. She has provided commentary for CBS, CBSN, CNN, ABC, NPR, C-Span as well as radio commentary for BBC America, WBLS (New York City) and WVON (Chicago). She hosts the weekly one hour radio program “Law of the Land with Gloria J. Browne-Marshall” on WBAI. Browne-Marshall is a produced playwright and essayist who is working on her first novel.

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