CW Hosts Panel on Race and the 2008 Election

By Desiree Parker Thursday, May 06, 2010

Colonial Williamsburg will be hosting five well-known speakers this week for a panel discussion on the election of the nation’s first African American president and what this means for the country and the future of race relations.

The panelists will discuss the significance of the 2008 presidential election, the role of race in modern national political debate and policymaking, and the lessons history has provided concerning racial and cultural divides in the discussion, called “A Dream Fulfilled? Race, Citizenship and the Presidential Election of 2008.”

Prize-winning historians Annette Gordon-Reed and David Blight will discuss the promise of the American Revolution and freedoms denied African Americans in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Former governor of Virginia and the nation’s first elected black governor, Douglas Wilder, along with Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell and Dr. Rex Ellis will reflect on how President Obama’s election has influenced ideas about citizenship and cultural identity.

“The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is proud to host these distinguished scholars and leaders who will address a topic integral to the future of our democracy,” said Colin Campbell, president of the Foundation.  “Set in the context of Virginia’s colonial capital where principles of freedom, equality and diversity were debated and forged, this forum promises to be an exciting exchange among some of the foremost thinkers on the subject of our national identity.”

Journalist and broadcaster Barbara Hamm Lee, WHRO’s chief community engagement officer, will serve as moderator of the forum. She is producer and host of “Another View,” which examines issues of particular interest to the African American community throughout Hampton Roads, broadcast each week on WHRO-TV.

The discussion will take place Friday, May 7, at 6 p.m. in the Colony Room of the Williamsburg Lodge on England Street. Admission is free but a free reservation is required. Reservations can be made at any Colonial Williamsburg ticket office or by calling 1-800-HISTORY. A reception will follow the event.

More about the panelists

David Blight is Class of 1954 Professor of American History and director of Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. He is one of the nation's foremost authorities on the U.S. Civil War and its legacy. Blight is the author of several books, including “A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Narratives of Emancipation,” published in 2007.

Rex Ellis is associate director of curatorial affairs at the National Museum of African American History and Culture of the Smithsonian Institution. He served as Colonial Williamsburg’s vice president of the Historic Area from 2001 until 2008. Ellis is the author of several books, including “Beneath the Blazing Sun: Stories From the African-American Journey” and “With A Banjo On My Knee,” about early African American banjo players, published in 1997 and 2001, respectively.

Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of law at New York Law School since 1992, is recognized as one of the United States’ most distinguished presidential scholars. She published her first book, “Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy,” in 1997. She captured the 2008 National Book Award and the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in history for her book, “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family” (2008).

Melissa Harris-Lacewell is associate professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton University. She is the author of the award-winning book, “Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought,” published in 2004.  In 2009 Harris-Lacewell became the youngest scholar to deliver the W.E.B. Du Bois Lectures at Harvard University. In 2009 she also delivered the prestigious Ware Lecture, becoming the youngest woman ever to do so.

L. Douglas Wilder is a former governor of Virginia and the first elected African American governor in U.S. history. During his administration, Wilder was praised for his sound fiscal management and his ability to balance the state budget during difficult economic times. He graduated from Virginia Union University with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1951. He studied law at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and received his degree in 1959. His most recent political office was mayor of Richmond from 2005-2009.