“I commend you for providing an environment where academics and lay persons find common ground to explore, contribute to and expand our understanding of the African American experience.”
—Carletta Wilson, Librarian/Writer
AAAHRP Third Annual History Conference
One of the goals of the Association for African American Historical Research and Preservation (AAAHRP) is to present to the public unfamiliar or forgotten history, scholarly work, new research, and other issues of importance concerning black history. With this in mind, AAAHRP has been bringing together scholars, historians, archivists and others with an interest in African American history in a conference setting.
You can look to an exciting event when AAAHRP holds its 3rd annual history conference on Saturday, February 11, 2006 at Seattle University in Seattle, Washington. The conference theme is “Reexamining the History Books: Uncovering and Discovering the Black Experience,” and the lineup of presentations is especially exciting, with scheduled presenters from across the country and across the seas meeting to share their research and knowledge of the African/African American experience. — Ed Diaz, President, AAAHRP
Honorary Conference Chairperson — Moni T. Law
AAAHRP is proud to name Moni T. Law its Honorary Chairperson for the AAAHRP Third Annual Conference. Moni T. Law has been involved with the previous AAAHRP conferences, serving as a panel chair in 2004 and the 
keynote speaker in 2005.
Born in Mobile, Alabama in 1960, Ms. Law grew up in Southern California (Inglewood, Pomona and Claremont). She attended college at the University of California at Berkeley, and law school at the University of San Francisco (J.D.,1986).
Attorney Moni T. Law is a solo practitioner in Seattle, Washington. Ms. Law’s current practice emphasizes employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and personal injury cases. She was named a “Rising Star” in Washington Law & Politics magazine in 2000 and 2001. Before starting her own practice in the summer of 2002, Ms. Law practiced with Evergreen Legal Services in Yakima, Washington for over eight years handling elder law, public benefits and domestic violence cases; Blaine Tamaki & Associates in Yakima for four years practicing personal injury and discrimination law including police abuse cases; and three years with the Levinson Friedman firm in Seattle handling personal injury, discrimination and sexual harassment litigation in state and federal court.
Ms. Law is the former Legal Redress Chair for the Alaska/Oregon/Washington State Conference of the NAACP. She is a member of the Loren Miller Bar Association and an Eagle member of the Washington State Trial Lawyer’s Association.
Keynote Speaker — Dr. Carver Gayton
Carver Gayton is currently the Director of the Northwest African American Museum in Seattle. He is also a workforce development/education consultant and teaches at the Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington. He served as Commissioner of the Washington State Employment Security Department from 1997 to March 2001. He had responsibility for managing unemployment insurance benefits, labor market information and Federal training programs for the state. He also had responsibility for managing 2500 employees and a half billion dollar biennial budget as well as a $1.6 billion unemployment insurance trust fund. Previously he was Corporate Director of College and University Relations for the Boeing Company. In this capacity he was responsible for managing policy development, research, recruitment and contributions programs and activities relevant to Boeing’s interface with colleges and universities throughout the nation. He also served as Director of Training and Educational relations at Boeing.
Dr. Gayton’s career has involved him in various roles within the university, government and the private sector. Prior to coming to Boeing, he was an Assistant Professor of Public Administration at Florida State University in Tallahassee, an Instructor in Political Science as well as Director of Affirmative Action and Staff Training at the University of Washington. He also was a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and a Teacher of History and English at his alma mater, Garfield High School in Seattle.
Carver has served on a wide variety of national, state and local boards over the years, some of which include the University of Washington Alumni Association where he served as president; the National Advisory Panel, National Center for Postsecondary Governance and Finance; Seattle Municipal League; Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges; Pacific Science Center; KCTS-Channel 9 Board of Trustees; Board Chairman of Pioneer Human Services; Seattle School Board; Chairman, Independent Colleges of Washington Board of Trustees; and Chairman, The National Center for Occupational Research and Development Board of Directors. He has been a keynote speaker at national, state, regional and local conferences regarding educational reform issues. He was a featured speaker in Amsterdam, Netherlands as guest of the US Department of Education and the European Community, and spoke on the subject Schools and Industry: Partners for Quality Education. He also has been a keynoter in Turkey, Canada, Jamaica and Bermuda at international conferences related to global education issues.
Carver is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, some of which include membership with the University of Washington Oval Club Upperclassmen’s scholastic and activities honorary; Who’s Who Among Black Americans; Who’s Who in American Education; University of Washington Husky Legend; University of Washington Athletic Department Husky Hall of Fame; University of Washington Football Legend; University of Washington Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award; Fredrick Douglass Distinguished Scholars Honor Society, and Blacks in Government Outstanding Citizen Award. In 1993, the National Association of Partnerships in Education honored him as the recipient of the McKee Award, that organization’s highest recognition for the “school to career” program he created at The Boeing Company. The company, because of this initiative, was the 1995 recipient of the Employment Management Association’s Pericles Service Award, presented to a company each year for development of the most innovative and effective human resource program in the nation. As a result of Carver’s efforts, the National Alliance of Business (NAB) also recognized The Boeing Company in 1997 as having the best school-to-work program in the nation. In 2001, Carver received the Network Consortium’s national Augustus F. Hawkins Meritorious Service Award, “In recognition of his distinguished leadership and contributions to the field of workforce development”
All of Carver’s degrees are from the University of Washington: Ph.D. Political Science; Master of Public Administration and Bachelor of Arts in History
He was born and raised in Seattle and is married with four children.
Invited Speaker — Aaron Dixon, Co-founder, Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party
Aaron Dixon is one of founding members of the original Black Student Union at the University of Washington. In 1968, during a visit to Seattle, Black Panther Party Chair Bobby Seale appointed Aaron Dixon to head the party's new Seattle chapter. By the age of 21, Aaron had marched with Martin Luther King Jr., befriended Stokely Carmichael, and become the captain of the Seattle chapter of Black Panther Party.
Since the ending of the BPP, Dixon has worked with youth in gang and drug rehabilitation. Currently, he is the Executive Director of Central House, a nonprofit Seattle organization that serves youth in a variety of ways – including providing transitional housing, and teaching leadership skills and media literacy. Aaron Dixon speaks at college campuses and high schools about his life experiences, especially those of the 60s, so that today’s youth know, understand, and stay connected to this crucial period in American history.
Session Chair — Dr. Tunde Adeleke, University of Montana
AAAHRP is fortunate to have Dr. Tunde Adeleke return as one of the session chairs for the 2006 conference. Tunde Adeleke is a Nigerian and Professor of History and Director of African American Studies at the University of Montana. He has lectured and published extensively in the field of African American Studies, specifically on themes dealing with identity, historiography, biography and afrocentricity. He is the author of three books and over sixty refereed articles. He attended Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria (B.A, 1978) and the University of Western Ontario, Canada (M.A./Ph.D, 1985). His article, "Who are We? Africa and the Problem of Black American Identity," won the Canadian Association for American Studies' prize for the best paper published in 1999. He is presently completing two books. The first is a critical study of Martin R. Delany and the second is a historical analysis of "Africa" in the Black American construction of identity.
Session Chair — Dr. J. Vern Cromartie, Contra Costa College
Dr. J. Vern Cromartie is a professor of sociology and chairperson of the Social Science Department at Contra Costa College. He earned his Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) in organization and leadership from the University of San Francisco. His second area of doctoral specialization was curriculum and instruction. Dr. Cromartie has an M.A. in sociology from California State University; an M.A. in humanities from California State University, Hayward; and an M.S. in counseling from California State University, Hayward. He received his B.S. in human relations and organizational behavior from the University of San Francisco. Dr. Cromartie also holds three A.A. degrees in social science, psychology, and English from the College of Alameda. Currently, he serves as an elected member of the Governing Council of the California Sociological Association and as an appointed member of the Pacific Sociological Association’s Committee on Community Colleges. Additionally, he is the founding president of the Contra Costa College-Bay Area Chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and the director of research and publications for the Jeremiah B. Sanderson Leadership Institute. Dr. Cromartie is the author of an article on youth in the Black Panther Party for Greenwood Press’s Contemporary Youth Culture: An International Encyclopedia (Shirley Steinberg, Priya Parmar, and Birgit Richard, editors); an article on Jacob H. Carruthers in Cultural Memory: Ethnicity and Multiculturalism in the Modern World; 2005 Monograph Series, which is published by the National Association of African American Studies and Affiliates; and an article on Joan Tarika Lewis for the African American National Biography (Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, editors), which is a joint project of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University and Oxford University Press. He is also the editor of Ithaca Work: Selected Papers and Speeches from the 10th Annual Working-Class Academics Conference (forthcoming). He is also an award-winning and widely published poet.
Session Chair — David Daw, The Initiative Newspaper
David Daw is a Washington native and Publisher and President of The Initiative Newspaper, a regional African American newspaper that focuses on positive information and resources that benefit the North West African American Community. He is also a media-publishing consultant who helps new publications get off the ground. David is a graduate of The Evergreen State College where he emphasized in public Administration and inter-cultural communications (B.A. ‘04). David has also lived, and studied economic development and nation building, in Namibia, South Africa, and throughout Central America. Prior to his position at The Initiative Newspaper he served in leadership roles in several statewide political organizations, campaigns and political Initiatives. David is very active in the community as well. He has coached high school sports (baseball and wrestling), and works with local teens to prepare them for college
Session Chair — Dr. Kenneth Jolly, Saginaw Valley State University
Dr. Kenneth Jolly earned his Ph.D. in African American History from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 2003. He has taught at the University of Missouri, Columbia, the University of Memphis, and currently is an assistant professor of history at Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw, Michigan.
Dr. Jolly teaches courses in African American history, Black Nationalism, Black Liberation Movements, Modern African history, South African history, and the African Diaspora. In addition to teaching, Dr. Jolly has participated in numerous conferences where he has presented his work on Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism. He has also served as a discussant for the Benjamin Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis and has most recently organized commemoration events for Malcolm X and Emmett Till. Dr. Jolly has also shared his research at public history events for OASIS Institute and the Missouri Historical Society.
Dr. Jolly’s article on A. Philip Randolph is forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of the 1960s and his article on Kathleen Cleaver is forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of African American History. Dr. Jolly’s article “Reaction to Liberation: Official Reaction to the Black Liberation Struggle in St. Louis, Missouri” was published in Gateway Heritage, Spring 2003. He also served on the Editorial Board for The Journal of African American History in Context published by Cantadora Press.
Research interests of Dr. Jolly include twentieth century Black liberation movements in the United States in general and the Midwest region in particular. He is interested in the relationships between local, national and global movements and the intersection of race, class, and gender, and the location and construction of racial identity, nationalism, and liberation.
Session Chair — Dr. Julian Madison, Southern Connecticut State University
Julian Madison is an associate professor of history at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) in New Haven, Connecticut. Before joining the faculty at SCSU, Dr. Madison served as chair of Africana Studies at Youngstown State University.
Madison earned his Ph.D. at the University of Washington. His teaching and research interests include African American and Afro-Canadian history, Blacks and American Law, Urban and Suburban American history, Sex, Race, and American Law, and Sports and Cultural Change in America.
Session Chair — Dr. Violet Malone, Western Washington University
Violet Marie Malone is a woman who considers learning to be a lifelong process. She is an active participant in the world around her
Dr. Malone is professor, emeritus of Adult and Higher Education in the Woodring College of Education at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. She came to the University in 1991 as head of the Department of Education Administration and Foundations after serving as the head of the Extension Education Unit in the College of Agriculture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Malone has spent most of her career working with adults in some phase of transition. She conducts short courses, workshops and seminars on Learning in Adulthood, Changes and Transitions Across the Lifespan, Leadership in Community Based Organizations, Voluntary Work, Teaching and Learning in Adulthood and “Good Leaders Make Great Lovers” series. She has conducted experiential learning sessions with men and women in such countries as Sri Lanka, Jordan, Kenya, Zambia, Belize and several islands of the Caribbean as well as Canada and the Netherlands and in every state in this country. She is a published author of textbooks and train-the-trainer manuals.
She is the former president of the Adult Education Association of the USA and former Chairperson of the National Coalition for Literacy. Her name is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who, American Woman. She is active in her community: president of the YWCA (C-U), AAUW (C-U), and member United Way of Illinois, Board of Education for Corrections member, the local Volunteer Center and Human Rights Task Force. In addition she was appointed a Public Member of the Council of Education for the AVMA.
Although she is a former president of the local chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, she was named the National Honorary Soror, Iota Phi Lambda Sorority as well as the Community Woman of the Year (1999) by the Puget Sound Chapter, American Business Women Association.
She was inducted into the Academy of Creative Teaching, Lucerne, Switzerland. In 1999 she was named to the International Hall of Fame for Adult and Continuing Education Society .In 2002, she was an invited member to the Oxford University, England Round Table.
Her academic background includes four degrees: Elementary Education, Guidance and Counseling, Adult Education and the Ph.D. in Adult Education. She is a native of Chicago, Illinois and resides in Ferndale Washington.
Session Chair — Fr. Thomas Murphy, Seattle University
The Rev. Thomas Murphy, SJ, is an Associate Professor of History at Seattle University. He received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Connecticut in 1998. Among Rev. Murphy’s fields of specialization are: History of Slaveholding in the United States, and Race and Ethnicity. Recent professional presentations include “Seeking a True Flag of Freedom: African Americans and the San Juan Boundary Dispute, 1859-1864,” delivered at the 17th Biennial Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, November 2003; and “From the California Gold Fields to the Victoria Polling Places: African Americans in Vancouver Island Politics, 1859-1866,” delivered at the AAAHRP Inaugural Conference, February 2004.
Session Chair — Glenda Pearson, University of Washington
Glenda Pearson is a public services librarian at the University of Washington Libraries, where she is the subject specialist librarian for Human Rights, Cinema Studies, Comparative Literature and Hellenic Studies. She is also the Head of the Microform and Newspaper Collections, where one of the collecting emphases is on Pacific Northwest ethnic and minority community newspapers, and regional labor newspapers.
Session Chair — Carletta Carrington Wilson, Independent Scholar
Carletta Carrington Wilson is a writer, amateur historian, genealogist, librarian and visual artist. Her poems, fiction and essays have appeared in Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century; Skin Deep: Women Writing on Color, Culture and Identity; Seattle Poets and Photographers: A Millennium Reflection; The Seattle Review ; Obsidian II and Uncommon Waters: Women Write about Fishing. Writing under a pseudonym she has published two books for children.
Ms. Wilson has recently completed, and is seeking publication for the manuscript, Reliquary of Remembrance. Based on genealogical research and oral history this work, of narrative poetry and prose, explores geography, landscape, migration and memory in the lives of African American men, women and children from the turn of the century to the 20th century.
A member of the American Historical Association, Ms. Wilson is an avid reader and researcher. She has traveled to conduct historical research in Barbados, Curacao, Aruba, Virginia and South Carolina.
This longtime visual arts and literature librarian serves as a member of the Museum Advisory Council and Program Committee of the Northwest African American Museum.
Session Chair — Dr. Leon F. "Skip" Rowland
Scheduled Presenters:
Thomas Aiello, University of Arkansas
“The Confusion of Multiple Clarifications: Black Newspapers’ Presentation of Black Baseball in 1932”
Dr. Stanley Arnold, Northern Illinois University
“There were Giants in Those Days: The Rise and Fall of the Philadelphia Giants and the Emergence of Black Professional Baseball”
Dr. David Boers, Marian College
“The Birth of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs”
Kahlil G. Chism, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC
“Discovering the Black Experience through Primary Source Documents”
Solomon Comissiong, MS, University of Maryland
“Harnessing Hip Hop Culture’s Infinite Potential”
Sarah Cornell, New York University
"'Un buen ciudadano, no dando la menor nota’: Fugitives of US Slavery in Mexico, 1820-1865"
Beatrice Cox, Sonoma State University
“’Jim Crow’ and the Archaeology of the Allensworth Hotel”
Dr. J. Vern Cromartie, Contra Costa College
“Youth within the Black Panther Party: An Overlooked Aspect of the Organization”
Antonio Cuyler, Ph.D. Candidate, Florida State University
“Doing Opera Their Way: African American Opera Companies, 1872-Present”
Dr. Julia Niebuhr Eulenberg, Visiting Scholar, University of Washington
“The Underground Railroad in the American West”
Dr. Gwendoline Y. Fortune, Professor of History-Social Science, Oakton Community College (Retired)
“Alien in the Homeland, Rescuing the ‘Bourgie’”
Dr. Nicole von Germeten, Oregon State University
“Black Blood Brothers: Afromexican Catholic Brotherhoods and Social Mobility in the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries”
Dr. Walter Greason, Ursinas College, Pennsylvania
“Race Organizing at the Shore: The NAACP, UNIA, and the Urban League in Central New Jersey, 1920-1950”
Jack Hamann, Author/Journalist, Seattle, Washington
“On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of WWII”
L. Ukali Johnson-Redd, Educator/Author, San Francisco, California
“African Identity throughout the African World”
Justin Johnston, Nova Scotia, Canada
“A Nova Scotia First: The Life and Times of a ‘Coloured’ Barrister: James Robinson Johnston, 1876-1915”;
“Henry Sylvester Williams, Pan-Africanism and the Nova Scotia Connection”
James Michael Lewis, The Pennsylvania State University
“William L. Dawson: A Forgotten Pioneer”
Dr. Kimberly Mangun, University of Utah
“Oregon Was a Klan State”
Niera Marshall, Ph.D. Candidate, Indiana University
"'Passing Themselves off as Free': Identity Transformation as a Means of Resistance among Enslaved Men and Women"
Dr. Babacar M'Baye, The Evergreen State College
“Narrowing the Gap between Afrocentric and Postmodernist Interpretations of Pan-Africanism”
Caleb Perkins, Office of the Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction
“African American History and the Emerging Washington State Social Studies Classroom Based Assessments: Methodology and Resources”
Tim Pinnick, Independent Researcher/Lecturer, Chicago, Illinois
“Blessed Be the Tie That Bind: Life, Work, and Death in the African American Community of Roslyn, Washington, 1922-1928”
Dr. Susan Platt, Art Historian, Seattle, Washington
“Post World War II African American Visual Artists in Seattle: A Selection”
Dr. Robin Poynor, University of Florida
“The Many Faces of Ogun: Altars to the God of Iron in the State of Florida”
Charles J. Ray, Ed.M., Columbia University
“The Academic Contributions of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, and Mr. Booker T. Washington: Rethinking These Scholars' Philosophical Influences on an African American Self-Determinating Education in 21st Century"
Victoria J. Robinson, Genealogist, Alexandria, Virginia
"Registered in the Chancery of Heaven: How the validity of one slave marriage is upheld in a court of law"
Dr. Michele Valerie Ronnick, Wayne State University
“The Lost Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough, Classical Philologist and Race Leader (1852-1926)”
Michael S. Saunders, Office of the Wash. Sec. of State/ Div. of Archives and Records Management
“African American History and the Emerging Washington State Social Studies Classroom Based Assessments: Methodology and Resources”
Kerin Shellenbarger, Photo Archivist, Carnegie Museum of Art
“The Teenie Harris Archive Project, Carnegie Museum of Art: A Case Study”
Eric A. Smith, AAGHSC, Chicago, Illinois
“Kirke Smith and the Founding of Lincoln Institute”;
“Oak Hill: A Portrait of Black Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Leaving the Coal Fields of Buxton, Iowa, Segregation, and the Meatpacking House”
Dr. Mary-Antoinette Smith, Seattle University
“Rosa Parks and the Women of the Civil Rights Movement”
Dr. I.M. Spence-Lewis, London, England
“Critical Examination of medical eugenics internationally: special reference to Dr. Marcus Garvey/Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League in Washington State”
Jake Sudderth, Columbia University
“Duke Ellington: The Maestro of Integration”
Ngozi Udoye, Loyola University Chicago
“The Myth of Racism: The Mind Power of Humans and the Legacy of Sojourner Truth”
Dr. Jan Whitt, University of Colorado
“’Press Women Resign After Negro Is Rejected': The Story of Betty Wilkins"
Dr. Herkie Lee Williams, Compton Community College
“Black Issues in Higher Education: The Case of Compton Community College”
Dr. Lee Williams, Jr., Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, Georgia
“’In the General Interest of the Work’: Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs and the Board of Missions for Freedmen, 1865-66”
Winterhawk, Historian/Author, Los Angeles
“Introducing the African Native American Cultural Legacy”
”Film Presentations:
California Newsreel
February One tells the inspiring story surrounding the 1960 Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins that revitalized the Civil Rights Movement and set an example of student militancy for the coming decade. Executive Producer: Dr. Steven Channing. Producer: Rebecca Cerese