Every year, the State Historical Society of Missouri hosts a series of conversations on the African American Experience in the state. Most recently, the society put on a lecture by Professor Crystal R. Sanders, who holds a doctoral degree in history.
Bridget Haney, a historian at the State Historical Society of Missouri, said the lecture series started after the string of student protests that took place on the University of Missouri’s campus in 2015.
Her advisor, Keona Ervin, and the executive director of the State Historical Society, Gary Kremer, started these discussions as a way to amplify Black voices and experiences in Missouri.
“So, it just kind of came out of that, to give back a voice – an academic voice – to the African American experience in Kansas and Missouri, as well as the state and the university,” Haney said.
Sanders’s lecture on Wednesday focused on the experience of African Americans pursuing graduate education during the era of legal segregation. She talked about how southern states attempted to fulfill their constitutional obligation of separate but equal by giving African Americans funds to leave the state in pursuit of higher education.
“I think that this is a topic that will be of special interest to individuals who are concerned with securing quality educational opportunities for, you know, residents in every zip code and neighborhood and state in the Union,” Sanders said.
The event included a brief reception before the lecture and time for questions afterward. The society plans on continuing the series through donations by the community, funding from the MU History Department and the Kinder Institute for Constitutional Democracy and internal funding from the society, itself.
