Somers to Present Annual Baird Lecture March 11
Mon, 03/08/2021 - 04:21pm | By: David Tisdale
Lucas Somers, a doctoral student in The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) History
program and the 2020-21 Center for the Study of Gulf South’s Baird Fellow, will present
the annual Baird Lecture online Thursday, March 11 at 6:30 p.m. This event and the
fellowship is sponsored by the USM Center for the Study of the Gulf South (CSGS).
The Baird Fellowship awards $1,500 annually to a USM History graduate student to support travel for research purposes. The title of Somers’ presentation is "Imperfect Allies and Angry Mobs: The American Missionary Association and the Battle for Black Education in Post-Civil War Kentucky."
“I’m honored to receive the Baird Fellowship this year and also very grateful to the
Center for the Study of the Gulf South for supporting my research,” said Somers, a
native of Bowling Green, Kentucky. “This fellowship allowed me to conduct archival
research at the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University in New Orleans, where
I consulted the American Missionary Association (AMA) archives.
“This AMA collection contains, among other things, letters tracing the establishment
and maintenance of schools for formerly enslaved African Americans across the South
that were supported by the AMA in the post-Civil War period. I also purchased a number
of scholarly monographs related to my dissertation topic.”
Somers’ presentation will focus on two communities in Kentucky where the AMA supported
efforts to educate formerly enslaved people by 1866: Camp Nelson and Berea.
“While historians are quite familiar with Southern white resistance to Black education
during Reconstruction, my research in the AMA archives also highlights the racial
biases and sectarian anxieties of those Northern missionaries teaching and supporting
those schools,” he said. “I will argue that both of these groups ultimately prevented
educational opportunities for Black Kentuckians from reaching their potential after
Reconstruction, and from any hope of achieving equal public education between the
races up to the present day.”
Somers’ larger dissertation project, entitled “Embattled Learning: Education and Emancipation
in the Post-Civil War Upper South,” examines the establishment of schools for formerly
enslaved African Americans throughout Kentucky and Tennessee in the decade after the
Civil War, analyzing the different individuals and organizations that supported or
opposed those efforts.
“I emphasize those members of Black communities who, despite widespread poverty and
uncertain political status, strove to secure an education for their children and adults,
while doing everything in their power to maintain control of those schools,” Somers
said.
He expressed gratitude to his main dissertation adviser, USM history professor Dr. Susannah J. Ural, “who has supported me through every step of this project, and has helped keep me on track during this unpredictable year.”
Dr. Ural described Somers as “an exceptional member of the USM History graduate program, a stellar teacher and undergraduate mentor, and a valued peer advisor to his fellow graduate students, and his lengthy list of academic awards and fellowships reflect these talents and the well-placed faith our faculty have in him.”
“The Baird Fellowship gave Lucas invaluable research support in a year when travel restrictions and shut-downs might have stopped his scholarship entirely,” Dr. Ural continued. “Instead, he was able to continue his study of African-American efforts to advance educational opportunities in post-Civil War Tennessee and Kentucky and the resistance they faced, even from potential allies. His lecture will feature a portion of that work, while also reminding us of the scholarship that USM donors make possible through research fellowships like the Baird.”
Information on how to access the March 11 Baird Lecture follows:
*"Imperfect Allies and Angry Mobs: The American Missionary Association and the Battle for Black Education in Post-Civil War Kentucky" presented by Lucas Somers.
*Time: Mar 11, 2021 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
*Join Zoom Meeting: https://usm-edu.zoom.us/j/98874787476?pwd=Z0t1Qjl2cEFHenQrMUN0L3c5L0NsZz09
For information about The USM Center for the Study of the Gulf South, visit https://www.usm.edu/gulf-south/about-csgs.php.