Milbauer Symposium

Conference Summary:

The Milbauer Program in Southern History is planning a virtual symposium from March 25-April 22, 2021 that seeks to spur further conversations about the histories of Black communities, institutions, and movements in the twentieth century. Entitled “Reimagining the Black Past: The Futures of Black Power,” the meeting will bring together five scholars who study the history of the Black Power Movement in both its national and global contexts. Although these papers differ in their approach or topical lens (e.g. banking, gender politics, and intellectual history), they collectively provide a new perspective on a dynamic field by illustrating the complex, diverse ways that African Americans tried to achieve change in America’s financial, cultural, and political systems in the decades after the early 1960s.

This meeting will occur over Zoom with one presentation each Thursday night from March 25-April 22. Each paper will be followed by comments from a fellow scholar in the field, most of whom will come from within the UF community. Also, presenters will take questions submitted to the event organizers from a wide audience that should include students, scholars, and community members from Gainesville and across the country. Lastly, these papers will be edited and submitted to the University Press of Florida in December 2021 for publication as a collection of essays in their “Frontiers of the South” book series.