Agenda

Tuesday July 27
  • 7:00pm-8:45pm: Opening film at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library

    "Negroes to Hire" explores the history and legacy of the Missouri-Kansas border slave trade. Film directors Jimmy Johnson PhD, and Gary Jenkins, J.D. will discuss the film in the context of their slave/slaveholder frontier settler families.

Wednesday July 28
  • 8:30am-4:30pm: Pre-conference tour: The Frontier Battleground

    Explore this “Prelude to the Civil War” heartland where John Brown was a UGR conductor and tour the Brown v. the Board of Education National Historic Site. Go to Tours & Attractions for more information..

  • 9:00am-5:00pm: Exhibit Hall check-in
  • 5:00pm-6:00pm: Registration
  • 6:00pm-8:00pm: Opening Reception at the Kansas State Historical Society
Thursday July 29
  • 7:30am-8:45am: Registration
  • 8:00am-9:00am: Continental breakfast in the Exhibit Hall
  • 9:00am-10:00am: Opening convocation with Keynote address by Quintard Taylor, Ph.D. — Freedom's Frontier: Kansas and the Idea of African American Liberty, 1856-1877
  • 10:15am-11:45am:
    • Session 1: African American Migration and Settlement in Frontier Kansas
    • Session 2: Filming John Brown
  • 12:00am-1:30pm: Luncheon with Keynote address by Paul Finkelman, Ph.D.
  • 1:45pm-3:15pm:
    • Session 3: The Immortal Ten: Villains or Heroes in Service of Freedom
    • Session 4: Multiple Perspectives in Interpreting the UGRR
  • 3:30pm-5:00pm:
    • Session 5: Entwined: Iowa, Kansas, and Strategies for Changing the Spread of Slavery
    • Session 6: Engaging Students in UGRR Research
  • 6:30pm-8:30pm: Banquet with the Chautauqua Meet Mary Pleasant by Susheel Bibbs, Ph.D.
Friday July 30
  • 9:00am-10:30am:
    • Session 7: Freedom on the Plains: Growing Radical Ideas in the Heartland
    • Session 8: Remembering John Brown: The Man, the Myth, the Legend
  • 10:45am-11:45am: Keynote address by Kristen Tegtmeier-Oertel, Ph.D.
  • 12:00am-1:00pm: Luncheon with fellow conferees
  • 1:15pm-2:15pm: Closing convocation with Keynote address by James Loewen, Ph.D.
  • 2:30pm-4:00pm:
    • Session 9: Putting a Face on Freedom: African American Involvement in the UGRR
    • Session 10: The Battle of Black Jack: John Brown Begins His War on Slavery
  • 6:00pm-8:00pm: Taste of Kansas at Cedar Crest
Saturday July 31
  • 9:00am-4:30pm: Post-conference tour: Freedom’s Border & KC Jazz

    People headed West over the Oregon Trail and North to freedom by crossing the Missouri River at Kansas City. We’ll tour the lost town of Quindaro and visit the Jazz Museum & Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Go to Tours & Attractions for more information.

Sunday August 1
  • 9:30am-4:00pm: Post-conference Affinity tour: West to the Lane Trail

    See and touch freedom’s path on the Tallgrass prairie and visit Blackjack Battlefield. Go to Tours & Attractions for more information.

Note: Schedule subject to change.

Congressional legislation for the Network to Freedom Program refers to the Underground Railroad as the predecessor of the Civil Rights movement. The Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site commemorates the landmark 1954 Supreme Court schools desegregation case. Visit here on the pre-conference tour, The Frontier Battleground.

Speakers


Quintard Taylor, Ph.D.
Freedom's Frontier: Kansas and the Idea of African American Liberty, 1856-1877


Paul Finkelman, Ph.D.


Susheel Bibbs, Ph.D.


Kristen Tegtmeier-Oertel, Ph.D.


James Loewen, Ph.D.