The NAACP: A Centennial Appraisal Conference

The NAACP: A Centennial Appraisal Conference
September 24-25, 2009
Hosted by the Marcus Cunliffe Centre for the Study of the American South, University of Sussex ( U.K. )
Location: The White Hart Hotel, 55 High Street , Lewes, East Sussex , BN7 1XE

This year sees the one hundredth anniversary of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the United States ' oldest, most durable and arguably most effective African-American civil rights organisation. From its inception, it has contributed consistently to the ongoing black freedom struggle in America through its hard-fought campaigns against lynching, discriminatory housing, disfranchisement, unequal employment and, most famously, segregated public schools. Hosted by the Marcus Cunliffe Centre for the Study of the American South at the University of Sussex, the two-day NAACP: A Centenary Appraisal conference will explore the organisation's complex, evolving and always surprising history by bringing together leading scholars from the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany. Working at the cutting-edge of civil rights historiography, these scholars will discuss and debate the NAACP's first hundred years and map out new areas for study beyond 2009.
Speakers will include: Professor David Garrow (Cambridge), Professor Manfred Berg (Heidelberg), Professor Carol Anderson (Emory), Professor Peter Ling (Nottingham), Professor Greta de Jong (Nevada-Reno), and Dr. Stephen Tuck (Oxford).