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NEWS
Hip Hop Hurston!
The College of Arts and Humanities at Bethune-Cookman University welcomes proposals for the annual Zora Neale Hurston Conference to be held virtually on February 15-16, 2024. Hip Hop Hurston recognizes the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop as well as Hurston’s celebration of African American vernacular and culture as a precursor to this movement. You are invited to submit abstracts for individual or panel presentations on Zora Neale Hurston, Hip-Hop, or on topics in anthropology, music, and drama, which are part of her many interests. Presentations can be scholarly, pedagogical, and/or creative, and should not exceed 15 minutes. We are also interested in student panels. Please submit 250–300-word abstracts by December 15, 2023, click here. Presenters will be notified by January 15, 2024. Please email Mary Corliss and Atreyee Gohain at [email protected] with any questions.
Constantinos Scaros Founds a New Historical Organization!
We are proud to share the news that Constantinos Scaros (St. Petersburg College), a friend of the FCH, has founded SOPHIA--the Society of Presidential Historians in Academia. The organization is primarily for presidential historians in academia, but it is open to all professors, students, and the general public. The website is: sophiascholars.com. In the meantime, you can also find out more information about Professor Scaros and read an interview with him for the AHA Member Spotlight series.
Dr. J. Michael Butler Hosts Conference at Flagler College
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Dr. Charles Gallagher, S.J., Publishes Book with Harvard University Press
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Congratulations to Dr. J. Michael Butler (Kenan Distinguished Professor of History at Flagler College), who hosted a conference titled “Teaching Uncomfortable Truths in Contested Spaces” in St. Augustine on September 28-30, 2023. This interdisciplinary conference brought together classroom teachers, scholars, journalists, non-profits, and independent researchers to explore why classrooms have become contested spaces and how affected teachers can best serve their students in such polarized times. The event was co-sponsored by Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. The meeting featured a talk by Dr. James Grossman, Director of the AHA. The FCH set up a table. We hope to continue the conversation at our annual meetings.
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Dr. Charles Gallagher, S.J., Professor of History at Boston College, has written a remarkable work on the history of the Christian Front, a far right terrorist group determined to foment an overthrow of the US government based on anti-Semitic and anti-communist principles. The publisher at Harvard University Press notes: "Gallagher chronicles the evolution of the front, the transatlantic cloak-and-dagger intelligence operations that subverted it, and the mainstream political and religious leaders who shielded the front’s activities from scrutiny. Nazis of Copley Square is a grim tale of faith perverted to violent ends, and a warning for those who hope to curb the spread of far-right ideologies today." Click on the image for more information about the book and to purchase a copy!
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Blaine T. Browne's Most Recent Books Explore World War II and the 1970s
Congratulations to Dr. Blaine T. Browne on his latest work Dazed and Confused: America Confronts the 1970s. Dr. Browne has authored Mighty Endeavor: The American Nation and World War II and co-authored (with Dr. Robert C. Cottrell) 1968: The Rise and Fall of the New American Revolution. Dr. Browne earned a doctorate in American history at the University of Oklahoma in 1985. An active participant in the Florida Conference of Historians since 1994, he has served as President three times (1996-1997, 2002-2003, and 2011-2012). Now an emeritus professor and retired from Broward College, he has authored numerous articles and books, including Uncertain Order: The World in the Twentieth Century and Modern American Lives: Biographies in American History since 1945. He has most recently taught as an adjunct at Oklahoma City University and a lecturer at the University of Oklahoma. The Blaine T. Browne Award is given to the best paper written by a graduate student.
Dan DuBois Interviewed by WFLA about the 2022 Annual Meeting
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Barbara Gannon's Search for Union Mass Grave Gains Momentum
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WFLA interviewed Dan DuBois (Saint Leo University and President of the FCH, 2022-2023) in the run up to the 2022 annual meeting. Dan discussed the preparations for the annual meeting, previewed the keynote address by Dr. J. Michael Butler, and addressed the recent controversies taking place in our profession, particularly the rise of the forces lining up to stifle discussions of racial conflict in our past. No doubt these discussions will impact our work for many years to come. To listen to the interview, click here.
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On February 20, 1864, Union and Confederate forces clashed at Olustee in north Florida, just west of Jacksonville. Hundreds perished in the battle. The Confederate dead have been memorialized, but a Union memorial disappeared and soldiers' remains have been desecrated or gone missing. Dr. Barbara Gannon (University of Central Florida) and her students have embarked on a project to find a mass grave of Union soldiers. She shared an update with us at the 2022 FCH meeting. The Florida Times-Union also published a story on the project!
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Michael Butler's Civil Rights Seminar Canceled Because of Anti-CRT Forces
In early 2022, Dr. J. Michael Butler (Kenan Distinguished Professor of History at Flagler College) was scheduled to present a teaching training seminar in Osceola County about the civil rights struggles in the United States. The teachers could not have chosen a better expert to speak with their instructors. Dr. Butler recently published his ground-breaking book, Beyond Integration: The Black Freedom Struggle in Escambia County, Florida, 1960-1980, which was praised by scholars as an important contribution to our understanding of the civil rights movement in Florida. However, the teachers' seminar was canceled. The strident views of many Florida politicians on critical race theory has created such a chilling effect in the state that even discussions of the civil rights movement itself are being challenged. The FCH stands firmly behind Dr. Butler's right to speak about these issues. For more background on this story, click on the following link to Salon. He also serves on the Browne Award Committee, which decides the best graduate paper presented at the annual meeting, and is a keynote speaker for the 2022 FCH annual meeting.
David Proctor and the FCH Help Improve the Florida Civic Literacy Requirement
David Proctor (left) with friends at Wakulla Springs
In 2017, members of the Florida State Legislature and the Department of Education were actively discussing a new civic literacy requirement. One proposed rule would have allowed for college students in state institutions to satisfy the requirement by earning a minimum passing score on one multiple choice question test and bypass taking any History class altogether. In response, Dr. David Proctor hosted a round table on this issue at the 2017 FCH annual meeting in Punta Gorda. In our discussions, we agreed on the importance of promoting civic literacy but that the proposed rule would undermine History education around the state. Over the next several years, Dr. Proctor and the FCH Executive Board had ongoing discussions on the issue. The original test itself, called the Florida Civic Literacy Exam (FCLE), was created by the Frey Institute at the University of Central Florida and was based mainly on the citizenship exam given to immigrants coming to the United States. In May 2020, the Executive Council of the FCH held a special online meeting to discuss the decision and voted unanimously in support of a petition to have the decision rescinded and agreed that this test actually undermined civic literacy because it was in no way equal to taking a class in History and Political Science. Bob Holladay, columnist for the newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat, and a friend of the FCH rallied support in the media, particularly on the Capital Report and the Florida Phoenix, and enlisted the support of other organizations, such as the Tallahassee Historical Society, Inc. and the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. He and Tom Crapps, an attorney in Tallahassee, pressured the Department of Education to turn over the test. As a result of these efforts, the Florida Department of Education announced that they had withdrawn the rule. Now, students must take either American Government or US History and pass the Florida Civic Literacy Exam. In addition, a faculty committee was formed to recommend course competencies and learning outcomes. None of this would have been possible without Dr. Proctor’s leadership! More information about the Florida Civic Literacy requirement may be found at the Florida Department of Education website: https://www.fldoe.org/policy/articulation/postsec-civics-lit.stml
Melissa Jerome Presents a Virtual Poster at the 2021 FCH Annual Meeting
Hosted by Florida Southern College, the 2021 annual meeting of the FCH was our first virtual meeting in the history of the organization. In a plenary session, Melissa Jerome (University of Florida) presented a poster, titled "Expanding Access to History: Florida & Caribbean Newspapers", which featured her work on the US Caribbean & Florida Digital Newspaper Project, a digitization project funded by the NEH and housed at the Library of Congress on the site chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. The goal of this project is to digitize historical newspapers from 1690-1963 for preservation, accessibility, and educational purposes. Selected content includes ethnic newspapers from Florida, titles from Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Attendees agreed that this is a valuable resource for historians, researchers, history teachers, and student alike! Great work!
Congratulations to Brandon Jett
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Julian Chambliss Named Val Berryman Curator of History at the MSU Museum
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The FCH congratulates Brandon T. Jett (Florida SouthWestern State College) on his first book Race, Crime, and Policing in the Jim Crow South: African Americans and Law Enforcement in Birmingham, Memphis, and New Orleans, 1920-1945 (available for pre-order through LSU Press). This work provides powerful historical insights into current debates about race and policing. Brandon has also written an article in the Washington Post (co-authored with Christopher McKnight Nichols) about the historical roots of public sacrifice in the United States. Just before the 2020 election, he was also featured in another article in the Tampa Bay Times on the challenges that progressives face in Hendry County, where he and his family live. He also lent his expertise to local debates about the dismantling of Confederate monuments in southwest Florida. Brandon attended his first FCH annual meeting in 2014 as a history graduate student from the University of Florida. We are so proud of his success!
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Congratulations to Julian Chambliss, past President of the FCH, who has been appointed as the Val Berryman Curator of History at the Michigan State University Museum in East Lansing, Michigan! Julian is Professor of English with a joint appointment in the History Department at Michigan State University. He is co-editor and contributor for Ages of Heroes Eras of Men: Superheroes and the American Experience (2013); co-editor of Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Essays on the Social, Cultural and Geopolitical Domain (2018); and co-editor of Cities Imagined: The African Diaspora in Media and History (2018). He has published commentary in the Frieze Magazine, Boston Review, Black Perspective: The Blog of the African American Intellectual History Society, Los Angeles Times, The Orlando Sentinel, The Christian Science Monitor, and National Public Radio (NPR). In addition, he is co-producer and host of Every Tongue Got to Confess, a podcast exploring communities of color through the lens of the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. He and Scot French (University of Central Florida) also just collaborated in producing an episode of "Reframing History".
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Award-Winning Documentary "Marching Forward" Screened Nationally
“Marching Forward” was screened at the 2020 FCH Annual Meeting. This documentary features the history that revolved around two dedicated high school band directors–James Wilson, the African-American bandleader at Jones High School, and Delbert Kieffner, the white bandleader at Edgewater High School–who were inspired by music to cross color lines in the Deep South. The documentary is the fourth that Professor of History Robert Cassanello and Professor of Film Lisa Mills have made in the past decade along with students in their Honors Advanced Documentary Workshop class. “Marching Forward” was a recipient of the Atman Award for Diversity in Film. The film is soon going into national distribution on local public television stations beginning in February 2020 (for Black History Month) and continuing on for the next five years. Click here to view the trailer.
Seth Weitz and Jonathan C. Sheppard Publish Volume on the Civil War in Florida
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Congratulations to Seth A. Weitz (Dalton State College) and Jonathan C. Sheppard (Executive Director, Mission San Luis) for the publication of A Forgotten Front: Florida during the Civil War Era! According to the University of Alabama Press, the essays "examine the most significant military engagements and the guerrilla warfare necessitated by the occupied coastline. Contributors look at the politics of war, beginning with the decade prior to the outbreak of the war through secession and wartime leadership and examine the period through the lenses of race, slavery, women, religion, ethnicity, and historical memory." Reviewers agree that this edited volume is an extraordinary contribution to a neglected aspect of Civil War history. You can purchase a copy through the University of Alabama Press website.
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FCH Features Discussions on Florida's Constitutions
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The Tallahassee Democrat Promotes
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In 2018, Florida commemorated the 50th anniversary of the state's Constitution. The FCH sponsored talks with historians who reflected on all of the constitutions in Florida.
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In his widely read column in the Tallahassee Democrat, Bob Holladay, the "Florida Bookman" himself, wrote a great article on the career and projects of Dr. Joe Knetsch, the famed historian of Florida. Mr. Holladay also promoted the 2018 annual meeting of the FCH! Congratulations to David Proctor for a great meeting!
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Jay Clarke's New Book Tackles the History of Philanthropy
The FCH congratulates Jay Clarke (Professor Emeritus of History at Jacksonville University) on the publication of his book titled Fifty Years of Begging: Dr. J. Calvitt Clarke and Christian Children’s Fund. Beginning in 1938, Dr. Clarke, Jay's grandfather, ran the world's largest Protestant organization dedicated to children's welfare. This work is an exploration into Dr. Clarke's life and legacy in the world of philanthropy during the 20th century and was recently reviewed in the Blue Ink Review. Jay has served as the FCH president (1997-1998, 2003-2004, and 2008-2009) and founded the FCH Annals, our peer reviewed journal. The FCH has named the award for the best undergraduate paper presented at the annual meeting after him.
FCH Organizers Featured on
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FCH Passes Resolution on
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Tom Donaldson (Florida SouthWestern State College), Nicola Foote (Florida Gulf Coast University), Michael Cole (Florida Gulf Coast University), and Jesse Hingson (Jacksonville University) were on Gulf Coast Live on WGCU with Julie Glenn to promote the 2017 annual meeting in Punta Gorda! This was part of an effort to spread the word about the annual meeting and draw in the public about the good work that our participants are doing!
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At the FCH annual meeting in Punta Gorda, President-Elect, Dr. David Proctor (Tallahassee Community College) introduced a resolution calling on the Florida state legislature to pass a history requirement for all public college and universities. Members overwhelmingly supported the resolution. Dr. Proctor has also drafted a letter to the Speaker of Florida's House of Representatives, Richard Corcoran.
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Mayhill C. Fowler Produces Groundbreaking Work on Soviet Culture
In Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge, Mayhill C. Fowler tells the story of the rise and fall of a group of men who created both Soviet and Ukrainian culture. This collective biography showcases new aspects of the politics of cultural production in the Soviet Union by focusing on theater and on the multi-ethnic borderlands. Unlike their contemporaries in Moscow or Leningrad, these artists from the regions have been all but forgotten despite the quality of their art. Dr. Fowler teaches in the History Department at Stetson University and regularly attends the FCH annual meetings. To purchase this work, please go to the book's Amazon page or the publisher's website.
Leslie K. Poole's New
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Heribert von Feilitzsch
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Christopher Williams Publishes Two Books
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Leslie Kemp Poole's Saving Florida: Women's Fight for the Environment in the Twentieth Century (University Press of Florida) has recently been reviewed in the American Historical Review and the Journal of American History. Leslie is a Professor at Rollins College and the winner of the 2015 Thomas M. Campbell Award. To buy her book, visit her website www.lesliekemppoole.com.
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In 2016, Canadians marked the 100th anniversary of the fire that burned Canada's parliament building and killed seven people. The question remains what or who caused it. Harry von Feilitzsch, a regular participant at our annual meetings, has been interviewed by the Toronto Sun, CTV News (Canada), and the Toronto Star. Harry is also the author of several books on the history of German spying in the Americas.
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Chris Williams has published Defining the Caymanian Identity and a new book titled Between A Past and Present Consciousness: Critiques of the Development of the Caymanian People. Chris teaches at the University College of the Cayman Islands and won the 2012 Thomas M. Campbell Award for the best article published in the FCH Annals. These works are available on AmazonSmile.
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Anthony Atwood Secures $1.5 million for the Miami Military Museum
The state of Florida has awarded $1.5 million to the Miami Military Museum. This was part of an on-going restoration effort led by Anthony D. Atwood, a long time FCH participant and former editor of the FCH Proceedings. To date, this project has raised $6.2 million and is one of the largest historic restorations underway in Florida today. It is a large (14,000 sq.ft.) three-story wood frame structure embodying the strong colonial revival look of the wartime era. Relocated to adjoin both the Zoo Miami and Gold Coast Railroad Museum, it will focus on the military history and heritage of Florida. Once in operation, the institution will tap into the vast existing curriculum of field trips to Zoo Miami, and establish an Educational Center in concert with the the Miami-Dade School Board (4th largest in the US), the state university in Miami, Florida International University, and north Florida's WWII Institute at Florida State University. We look forward to hosting an annual meeting at the museum! For more information, please visit their website: http://www.miamimilitarymuseum.org
Jesse Hingson Takes Jacksonville University Students on Trips to Cuba
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Since 2016, Jesse Hingson (Jacksonville University and FCH Treasurer) has led trips with his students to Cuba. In March 2016, he took students on a week-long trip that coincided with President Barack Obama's visit, an expedition baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Cuba's national team, and a free performance by the Rolling Stones, their first ever concert in Cuba. CNN's Chris Cuomo interviewed JU students while walking through the streets of Old Havana. To see the interview, please visit:
http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/03/21/cuba-change-obama-cuomo-pkg.cnn |
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Mike Denham
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Julian Chambliss
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