North Carolina Central University (NCCU) will pay homage to influential Black activists and historians with free lectures and a film screening during Black History Month.
The tribute will kick off Wednesday, Feb. 15, 4 p.m., in the NCCU Student Center with a screening of the PBS documentary, “Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom in partnership with Pfizer’s Global Black Community (GBC) and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) teams. Featuring one of the most pivotal and transformative figures in African American history, the documentary highlights the life of Harriet Tubman, conductor of the Underground Railroad, Civil War scout, nurse and spy.
Following the screening, Pfizer executives will share insights about careers and life at the company with students. The event will also include refreshments as well as a live DJ ahead of the screening.
For more information about the “Harriet Tubman: Visons of Freedom” film screening, contact William Smith, NCCU Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise (BRITE) development director, at 919-530-6570 or wsmith38@nccu.edu.
On Friday, Feb. 17, 1 p.m., in the Alfonso Elder Student Union Lobby, NCCU’s Department of History will hold its 32nd Annual Earlie E. Thorpe Memorial Lecture, featuring keynote speaker Patricia Matthew, Ph.D.
A National Humanities Center fellow and specialist in the history of the novel, Romantic-era fiction and British abolitionist culture, Matthew has authored and edited several notable journals, including “Romantic Pedagogy Commons,” “European Romantic Review” and “Studies in Romanticism” as well as articles and reviews in “Women’s Writing,” “Keats-Shelly Journal” and “Texas Studies in Literature and Language.” Her first book, “Written /Unwritten: Diversity and the Hidden Truths of Tenure” focused on the experience of faculty of color in higher education and her forthcoming book, under advance contract with Princeton University Press, is a study of gender politics in Britain’s abolitionist culture and contemporary Black art.
The annual lecture honors the late Earlie Endris Thorpe, Ph.D., who chaired NCCU’s Department of History from 1962 to 1973, and taught at the university for 27 years until his death in 1989. Thorpe published several seminal works of history, notably “The Mind of a Negro: An Intellectual History of Afro-Americans,” “Black Historians: A Critique” and “The Old South: A Psychohistory.”
The department will also host a discussion titled "Race in European Space: The Story of the Far Right in Europe is Not a Story of a Resurgence but a Story of Continuity” on Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 6 p.m. in Room 207 of the Edmonds Classroom Building. The lecture will be led by Lydia Lindsey, Ph.D., NCCU associate professor of history.
For more information about the lectures, please contact Tony Frazier, Ph.D., assistant professor of history, at tfrazie5@nccu.edu or 919-530-5394.
