Victoria W. Wolcott, assistant professor of history at the University of Rochester whose research focuses on the African-American experience in the 20th-century urban North, will lecture on recreation and race in a post-war city at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17.
Her talk is the first of the fall 2003 Work in Progress Seminar Series of the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies at the University. Wolcott will develop her latest research on recreation and leisure-topics that were major concerns for African Americans during the 20th century. She will lecture on "Recreation and Race in the Post-War City: Buffalo's 1956 Canadiana Riot" in room 302 of Morey Hall on the University of Rochester's River Campus.
Segregation policies practiced by white owners of amusement parks, swimming pools, and movie theaters kept those activities out of the reach of black Americans between World War I and II, and later in the century. In 1956, a race riot on the Lake Erie steamer Canadiana showed the limits of integration in urban centers and the consequences of segregation. The boat ferried passengers between Buffalo and the Crystal Beach amusement park.
The Institute's Work in Progress Seminar Series is a multi-disciplinary program on topics related to Africa and its Diaspora. The sessions offer an environment where students and faculty working in the broad area of African and African-American Studies can present and discuss their research.
The talk is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided. For more information, contact the Frederick Douglass Institute at x5-7235.