The Duke Center on Law co-sponsored by the Law in Slavery and Freedom Project is organising a Reconstruction Conference on March 1-2, 2019 at Duke Law School.
About the organization:
The Duke Center on Law, Race, and Politics and the Law in Slavery and Freedom Project of the University of Michigan will hold their Reconstruction Conference on March 1-2, 2019 at Duke Law School.
About the conference:
No less than the Founding of the nation, Reconstruction represents a defining era of American history. Yet, Reconstruction is not fully understood by most Americans, and its profound effects are not fully appreciated.
Reconstruction changed state laws; created and destroyed civil and political institutions; gave rise to a civil rights infrastructure; redefined the relationship between the national and state governments and between the national government and the Supreme Court; produced movements and counter-movements; and framed the rhetoric within which equality and citizenship are debated and constructed even today.
This conference will critically reexamine the Reconstruction period, the Reconstruction Amendments, and the post-Reconstruction period (the so-called “Redemption” era) a span of history and legal change that set the stage for the Civil Rights Movement and will evaluate the ways in which our contemporary political and legal structure are shaped by the failures and successes of the Reconstruction project.
Consequently, the conference will focus on a number of themes, including: the history and mechanics of Reconstruction; the rhetoric of Redemption and white supremacy; the role of the Supreme Court in advancing or inhibiting the aims of Reconstruction; the creation and impact of Civil Rights statutes; the role of social movements, mobilization, and counter-mobilization in redefining personhood, citizenship, and the political community; and the relationship between the national government and the states in sustaining a multicultural America.
The Reconstruction Conference is proudly co-sponsored by the Law in Slavery and Freedom Project. The Law in Slavery and Freedom Project is a curricular and research initiative based at the University of Michigan Law School that brings together scholars and students to exchange ideas on the history of law and slavery in the Atlantic world.
Date of conference: March 1-2, 2019.
Location: Durham, North Carolina.
Contact info: leanna.doty[at]law.duke.edu.
Important links:
For the schedule for the conference, click here.
To register, click here.
