A Pulitzer Prize-winning author and the son of a Negro Baseball League umpire are among the highlights at University of Lynchburg during Black History Month.
Feb. 5, 7 p.m. Memorial Ballroom, Hall Campus Center
The Negro Baseball Leagues: An American Legacy
Byron Motley will share stories about his father, Bob, one of the only living umpires from the Negro Baseball League. For more than 50 years, the Kansas City Monarchs, the Chicago American Giants, the St. Louis Stars, the Birmingham Black Barons, the Homestead Grays, and the Indianapolis Clowns were the Yankees, Cardinals, and Red Sox of black baseball in America. For more than a decade beginning in the late 1940s, umpire Bob Motley called balls and strikes for many of their games, working alongside such legends as Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and Willie Mays.
Feb. 7, 7 p.m. Burton Student Center Westover Room
Red Tails, a film featuring Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ne Yo, Nate Parker, and Method Man.
This will be an entertaining prelude to Shaun Spencer-Hester’s talk on February 12. The movie is a recount of the first African- American fighter pilots in World War II, which included Shaun Spencer’s father, Chauncey Spencer.
Feb. 12, 7 p.m. Burton Student Center East Room
Shaun Spencer-Hester: The Spencer Family Legacy
Shaun Spencer-Hester is the daughter of the famed Tuskegee Airman Chauncey Edward Spencer Sr. and the granddaughter of the Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer. She will share memories of her family and pay tribute to their legacy.
Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m. Snidow Chapel
The LC History Department and Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest will present Reflections on the Legacy of Emancipation. The panel discussion will feature: Dr. Adam Dean, Assistant Professor of History, University of Lynchburg; Dr. Gary Gallagher, John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War, University of Virginia; and Lori Lee, Ainsworth Visiting Assistant Professor of American Culture, Randolph College.
Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m. Sydnor Performance Hall, Schewel Hall
The John M. Turner Lecture in the Humanities
Douglas Blackmon, author, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (2009 Pulitzer Prize and 2009 National Book Award); former reporter, The Wall Street Journal andthe Atlanta Journal Constitution. The talk is titled “A Persistent Past: Reckoning with Our Racial History in the Age of Obama.”
Feb. 26, 8:30 p.m. Burton Student Center Westover Room
Night at the Apollo Talent Contest
University of Lynchburg Black Student Association is bringing together various talented individuals to see if they can get the approval of the crowd! If you would like to show off your talent at this event and compete for great prizes contact ims@lynchburg.edu.
Feb. 28, 7 p.m. Snidow Chapel
Derrick Thompson ’08: Choral Recital
“An Evening of Spirituals,” including Harry T. Burleigh’s “My Lord, What a Mornin'” and Moses Hogan’s “Deep River” will be performed by Derrick Thompson, a 2008 LC graduate and Madison Heights, Va. native. He has studied and performed under some of the world’s greatest performers, conductors, and educators including: leading female conductor Marin Alsop of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; director Craig Fields, former director of Opera on the James; Maestro Francesco Milioto; and British Maestro Nicholas Smith. Derrick is a fulltime music teacher in Charlotte County at Phenix Elementary, Central Middle, and Randolph Henry High.
