Porter L. Fortune Jr. History Symposium to Explore Childhood in the South

"Childhood in Southern History" will be the theme of the Porter L. Fortune Jr. History Symposium on October 4-6, 1995. The history of childhood has become a significant field in the past 25 years, but this will be the first conference to bring scholars together to discuss the experiences of Southern children. Historians, teachers, parents, and anyone else with an interest in children and the South are invited to attend this free symposium.

Martin J. Dain, Center for the Study of Southern Culture

Why study the history of childhood in the South? One reason is simply that children make up too large a segment of the population for historians to ignore them. But considering the issue of childhood should also shed new light on many crucial issues in the study of the South.

The symposium will begin on the evening of Wednesday, October 4, with a presentation about contemporary issues in Southern childhood. Robert Parris Moses will discuss the Algebra Project and how it is addressing problems poor children have long faced in Mississippi. Students involved with the project will also participate in the symposium.

Thursday morning, the symposium moves to the antebellum South for a discussion about slave children by speakers Felton O. Best of Central Connecticut State University and Wilma King of Michigan State University. The Thursday afternoon session will examine the difficult issues of childhood, sexuality, and the law in the 19th-century South, with the discussion exploring not only sexual abuse but also how society defines childhood. Peter Bardaglio of Goucher College will be the speaker, and Kriste Lindenmeyer of Tennessee Technological University will comment. The Thursday evening session will feature Indiana University's Steven Stowe, author of Intimacy and Power in the Old South, and Rutgers University's Philip J. Greven, author of The Protestant Temperament and Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse, discussing issues of children in health and care-giving in the 19th century.

On the morning of Friday, October 6, Sally McMillen of Davidson College, author of Motherhood in the Old South and Southern Women, will discuss religion and children in the early 20th century. Gail S. Murray of Rhodes College will comment. The final session on Friday afternoon returns the symposium to the contemporary South with a discussion of the portrayal of childhood in recent literature. Suzanne Jones of the University of Richmond, editor of Growing Up in the South, will be the speaker, and Joyce Bickerstaff of Vassar College will comment.

The symposium, sponsored by the History Department, the Afro-American Studies Program, and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, receives funding from the Mississippi Humanities Council. Information about the symposium is available from codirectors Ted Ownby, History Department, 601-232-7148, or James F. Payne, Chair, Afro-American Studies, 601-232-5977.

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