January 8th Seminar
Seminar No. 4 -- Sat., Jan. 8th, 10:00-12:30 p.m., Reeve Union 214, UW Oshkosh
UW Oshkosh historian Stephen Kercher will facilitate a discussion on Rick Perlstein's book "Nixonland," from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Discussion will center around Chapters 13-25 (pp. 274-538). The first hour of the seminar will feature a presentation from fellow UW Oshkosh historian Michelle Kuhl, entitled "We have Seen the Fate of the Indian:" African American Leadership in the Shadow of the Plains Wars." She gave a presentation on this topic back in Oct. 2008 when she was first researching this topic. She now has updates and new information to share given her research. project has grown in a new direction.
Book discussion questions are posted in the "Jan. 8th seminar" folder within the 2010-11 Workshops Section of this site.
Here is a summary of Michelle Kuhl's presentation: This talk looks at how perceptions of Native Americans as a defeated race informed the leadership strategies of the African American activists Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Henry McNeal Turner in the Gilded Age. Concerned about the possibility of a race war between whites and blacks in the South, African American leaders read the fate of Native Americans as a cautionary tale and steered followers away from violent confrontation. Washington seemed the most comfortable with this path, while Douglass and Turner worried that the manhood of the race could be undermined by charges of cowardice.
