Plenary Addresses:
Charles Marsh, “Are We Still of Any Use?: The Audacious Hope of the Engaged Scholar”
Trudier Harris, “The Terrible Pangs of Compromise: Racial Reconciliation in African American Literature”
Rosephanye Dunn Powell, "African-American Spirituals and Gospel: Song Creating Community”
One of the highlights of the National Conference was the opportunity to experience music and the theme of reconciliation, first at the presentation of the documentary, Mississippi Remixed, hosted by Samford alum and Lilly Graduate Fellow Joel Davis on Friday afternoon and for which Davis composed the score.
Music and reconciliation were woven together again at the Friday evening Vespers, “Standing in the Need of Prayer,” on October 21 in A. Hamilton Reid Chapel. Attendees heard the moving testimony of Carolyn McKinstry, who was present at the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where she lost four of her friends. Vesper music was performed by Samford University students, including the Samford University A Cappella Choir.
