Society of Civil War Historians

Mini-Conference Grant Awards Announced

The SCWH and the ad-hoc committee (consisting of Antwain Hunter, Chandra Manning, Lindsey Peterson, Jason Phillips, and David Silkenat) is proud to announce a winner of the $5000 grant, as well as a second $1000 prize for the Runner Up.

For the winner the committee selected “Recovering Reconstruction: A Community Workshop in Augusta, Georgia” and as runner-up the committee selected “More than an Eagle on a Button.”

“Recovering Reconstruction: A Community Workshop in Augusta, Georgia” promises to bring academics, community organizations, and members of the public together to explore Augusta’s many important roles in Reconstruction. These roles include the presence of the USCT, the 1866 meeting of the Georgia Equal Rights Association, Augusta’s importance as a site of biracial Republican government during Reconstruction. Augusta was simultaneously the site of two early Confederate monuments and a staging ground for the Hamburg Massacre of 1876. The workshop promises to engage the public in conversation around the continuing resonance of this conflicted and contradictory history, for example by discussing current (hotly contested) efforts to change the name of the Jefferson Davis Memorial Bridge to Freedom Bridge. The proposers note that the town of Augusta currently marks its Confederate history, but few signs or markers testify to Black activism, the USCT, biracial Republican politics, or Augusta’s role in the Hamburg Massacre. The community workshop proposed for July 8, the anniversary of the Hamburg Massacre, will take place in the Springfield Baptist Church, the building where the Equal Rights Association was founded. Community participants include:

Augusta Canal Discovery Center

Augusta Museum of History

Augusta Historic Society

Guard House Museum at Augusta University

Historic Augusta

Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History

Wayne O’Bryant, Hamburg-Carrsville African-American Heritage District Chairman

Watson Brown Foundation

The committee selected this proposed mini-conference for its courageous engagement with a contradictory past in conjunction with a wide array of community partners. The application team consists of faculty members at every level from Assistant Professor to Professor Emerita as well as a public historian at the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History. Presenters include more local museum staff as well as National Park Service personnel. The SCWH grant, along with creative thinking about venues and speakers, would allow the proposers to make admission to the event free, thus welcoming all members of the community. In terms of the goals of the new mini-conference grant—to engage local communities, to increase outreach, and to involve historians at all career stages inside and outside academia—this proposed event serves exactly the purposes the committee hoped we could achieve with the mini-conference grant.

For more information on this conference, please click here. 

“More than an Eagle on a Button” also furthers the SCWH's goals for the mini-conference. Historians from different institutions and career stages proposed a two-day public symposium investigating the lived experiences of Black Americans –soldiers and veterans as well as their families and home communities—during the Civil War. Conference organizers anticipate presentations from historians at all career stages and they envision an edited volume to be published from the proceedings to ensure future impact. The event also promises community outreach in the form of sessions empowering local residents to research their own family histories in USCT sources. The conference organizers have secured significant funding from both Sam Houston State University and Texas A & M.

Adding the SCWH to the list of sponsors will benefit conference attendees through enhanced offerings, and it will also benefit the SCWH to be associated with an event that is well positioned to be so successful. In its diverse team of proposers, its polished agenda, its opportunities for interaction with the general public, and its initiative in securing substantial outside funding, this proposed event also furthers the stated goals of the mini-conference admirably.

For more information on this conference, please click here.