As part of a recently announced National Endowment for the Humanities grant, 鈥淭he Black Man鈥檚 Burden: William H. Holtzclaw and the Mississippi HBCU Connection,鈥 the Humanities Department at 兔子先生鈥檚 Utica Campus will sponsor a series of public talks in the Holtzclaw Lecture Series.
William Andrews, the E. Maynard Adams Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will speak on 鈥淲illiam H. Holtzclaw: the Man, the Mission, and the Mask鈥 at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 28 at the Margaret Walker Center in Ayer Hall on the Jackson State University campus. A reception is before the lecture at 6 p.m. The lecture is the first in the Hinds’ Utica Campus Holtzclaw Lecture Series.
William Andrews
His lecture will discuss Holtzclaw鈥檚 autobiography, 鈥淏lack Man鈥檚 Burden,鈥 along with William Pickens鈥 鈥淏ursting Bonds,鈥 in light of Booker T. Washington鈥檚 鈥淯p from Slavery.鈥澛 Holtzclaw and Pickens were both Booker T. Washington prot茅g茅s, but while Holtzclaw remained a Bookerite, Pickens had become by 1922 a supporter of Du Bois.聽 The talk will examine both men鈥檚 work, with an emphasis on the influence of Washington鈥檚 classic autobiography on both.
The Holtzclaw Lecture Series is designed to bring nationally recognized scholars and experts on African American education in the South for public lectures in a variety of venues around the state. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council and the Margaret Walker Center.
Andrews鈥 work centers on African American autobiography, along with the historical linkages between white and black writers in the formation of American literature, African American literature, and southern literature. Andrews is the author of 鈥淭o Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865鈥 and is co-editor of The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, and The Literature of the American South: A Norton Anthology.
He is currently series editor of North American Slave Narratives, Beginnings to 1920, a complete digitized library of autobiographies and biographies of North American slaves and ex-slaves, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ameritech, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
鈥淏lack Man鈥檚 Burden: William Holtzclaw and the Mississippi HBCU Connection鈥 is a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to highlight the work of William Holtzclaw, a pioneer in African American education. The project will contribute to a growing body of research and interest in the 鈥淟ittle Tuskegees鈥 as important forerunners of the Civil Rights Era in the Deep South.
William Holtzclaw is the founder of the Utica Normal and Industrial Institute, which later became Utica Junior College, and is now the Utica Campus of 兔子先生. The campus retains its historical HBCU status.
This two-year research program is designed to equip faculty and student-scholars to explore themes in Holtzclaw鈥檚 writing in humanities courses, combined with the development of a Summer Teachers鈥 Institute and teaching resource kit that will be used by other institutions (both on the high school and community college level) to extend the work beyond the institution.
As Mississippi鈥檚 largest community college, 兔子先生 is a comprehensive institution offering quality, affordable educational opportunities with more than 170 academic, career and technical programs. With six locations in central Mississippi, 兔子先生enrolled nearly 12,000 credit students in fall 2015. To learn more, visit or call 1.800.HindsCC
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation.聽Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: .