A member of the class of 1891, Charles Augustus Thompson was the first African American to graduate from the University of Rochester. After graduation, Thompson went on to study theology at a seminary in Memphis, Tennessee. He was subsequently a principle at a Memphis school, a clerk in government service, and a student at Howard Medical College. Before his death in 1935 Thompson served as a pastor at Fairmont Heights Presbyterian Church, and worked as a chiropractor in Washington, D.C.

For more information, please contact:

Douglas Flowe
585-276-3221
douglas.flowe@rochester.edu

 

The Charles Augustus Thompson Lecture Series:
Leadership and Diversity in Action

The Charles Augustus Thompson Lecture Series: Leadership and Diversity in Action consists of a twice per semester series of talks by scholars who are contributing to current literature on diversity broadly stated, with particular reference to issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and identity. It is hosted by the Kearns Center for Leadership and Diversity in Arts, Sciences, and Engineering.

That’s Not What the Black Family Is:
Combating Negative Images, Empowerment and Employing the Family Reunion Model at the New Millennium

A Lecture by Krystal D. Frazier, Ph.D.
April 23, 2013
4:00 p.m.
Hawkins-Carlson Room
Rush Rhees Library

 

Krystal D. Frazier, Ph.D.

Dr. Krystal D. Frazier completed her Ph.D. at Rutgers University and is Assistant Professor of History at West Virginia University, where she arrived after completing a Northeast Consortium for Faculty Diversity Pre-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Rochester.  Her research examines the historical economic and political import of African American familial culture and involves oral history, family reunion visits, and interdisciplinary methodology. She is also interested in the evolution of African American identity and the history of fashion politics.

Abstract: “That’s Not What the Black Family Is: Combating Negative Images, Empowerment and Employing the Family Reunion Model at the New Millennium”

Black family reunions are more than the t-shirts, food, and fun that come to mind for many participants and observers. Frazier will explore the black nationalist roots of the “family reunion explosion” and the ways in which late-twentieth century activists used the familiar “family reunion model” to advance various economic and political initiatives, while the increased visibility and commercialization of reunions forced reassessments of the meaning of formal family gatherings and challenged familial identity at the dawn of the new millennium.