CLP: Call My Name: Documenting African American Life and Labor in Early Clemson University History
Tuesday, November 14, 2017, 4-5:30pm
McEachern Lecture Hall ⋅ Sponsored by the Furman Debate Society
Over the last several years, Dr. Rhondda Thomas has devoted herself to collaborative research effort examining a six-generational history of African Americans at Clemson University, a project she has entitled “Call My Name.” Dr. Thomas will come to Furman to deliver a keynote address about her work with “Call My Name,” including the technical setup of her digital advocacy project complimenting and contrasting with her institution’s official webpages; the archival process in collecting the information despite resistance from the archives; and finally, her recent successes to recognize African-American history at Clemson and goals for future work with the National Endowment for the Humanities and other campus sites.
The James B. Duke Library’s collection includes the following books authored and edited by Dr. Rhondda Thomas:
Claiming Exodus: A Cultural History of Afro-Atlantic Identity, 1774-1903 – During the 18th century, American Puritans introduced migrant and enslaved Africans to the Exodus story. In contrast to the ways white Americans appropriated the texts to defend the practice of slavery, African migrants and slaves would recast the Exodus in defense of freedom and equality, creating narratives that would ultimately propel abolition and result in a wellspring of powerful writing.
Drawing on a broad collection of Afro-Atlantic authors, Rhondda Robinson Thomas shows how writers such as Absalom Jones, Daniel Coker, and W.E.B. Du Bois employed the Exodus metanarrative to ask profound, difficult questions of the African experience. These writers employed it as a literary muse, warranting, Thomas contends, that they be classified and studied as a unique literary genre. Through an arresting reading of works renowned to the largely unknown, Claiming Exodus uncovers in these writings a robust foundation for enacting political change and a stimulating picture of Africans constructing their own identity in a new and unfamiliar land. – from the publisher
The South Carolina Roots of African American Thought: A Reader – South Carolina has always loomed larger in the national imagination, particularly in terms of political and social policy, than its size and population might justify. The audacity and the often astonishing character of thinkers and political figures who have hailed from this region might suggest that climate affects personality. Edward Rutledge challenged the condemnation of the slave trade in the initial draft of the Declaration of Independence; John C. Calhoun penned the audacious philosophy of state nullification; Citadel cadets fired shots at Fort Sumter; and Senator Strom Thurmond defended racial segregation with the longest filibuster in Senate history. South Carolina has always used its passion to influence national debate.
Rhondda Robinson Thomas and Susanna Ashton seek in this collection to remedy the singularly narrow way in which South Carolina’s intellectual character has been defined in the popular imagination. Thomas and Ashton document an equally important tradition that parallels that of white radical thought. Through this anthology they reveal a tradition of national prominence and influence of black intellectuals, educators, journalists, and policy analysts from South Carolina. These native and adopted citizens mined their experiences to shape their thinking about the state and the nation. Francis Grimké, Daniel Payne, Mary McLeod Bethune, Kelly Miller, Septima Clark, Benjamin Mays, Marian Wright Edelman, and Jesse Jackson have changed this nation for the better with their questions, challenges, and persistence—all in the proudest South Carolinian tradition. – from the publisher