The 2021 Draughon Seminars in State and Local History presents Dr. Shari L. Williams on Wednesday, September 29th, 2021 at 10:00am. To receive a Zoom link, register at aub.ie/draughonseminars
African American women played a crucial role in the Black Freedom Struggle in the United States, and one significant but overlooked contribution of their leadership development was participation in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Negro Cooperative Extension home demonstration and 4-H clubs. In addition to learning skills related to cooking, cleaning, canning, sewing and other domestic chores, many assumed leadership roles in Alabama neighborhood clubs and county-level councils, and, over time, club activities became an intergenerational emancipatory realm of personal fulfillment and citizenship rights consciousness. Focusing on Alabama from 1928-1955, and, especially, the life and work of Macon County’s Laura Randolph Day, Dr. Williams uses historical and genealogical research to explain how Daly’s work was grounded in and enhanced by existing Afrocentric kinship, community and religious beliefs and cultural practices.
Dr. Shari L. Williams is a historian of the modern American south. She is the executive director of The Ridge Macon County Archaeology Project which operates an interpretative center in Warrior Stand that offers educational programming focused on the history of the Federal Road through Macon County, multicultural migration and rural community development.
Draughon Seminars in State and Local History are a series of lectures sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. The series is funded by the Kelly Mosley Endowment in honor of Dr. Ralph B. Draughon, president of Auburn University from 1947 to 1965. For more information, please visit auburn.edu/cah.
