SPRINGFIELD, Mo., November 13, 2020 — Drury University is one of 19 finalists for a prestigious national grant program led by the Council of Independent Colleges and Yale University that seeks to explore the history and impact of slavery in America.
“Legacies of American Slavery” is a multiyear project created by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) in cooperation with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University.
Six regional winners are expected to be announced from the pool of finalists later this month. The grants will support opportunities for selected CIC institutions, their faculty members, students, and community-based partners to participate in research, teaching and learning, and public discussions about the lasting impact of slavery.
Each region will carry forward public programming around a particular theme. Drury’s regional proposal focuses on the theme of “Resistance and Persistence in the Great Plains.” Although the national conversation about race often emphasizes the experiences of people living on the coasts, the Deep South and in major cities, the history of race in America is much broader. Slavery and segregation shaped the smaller cities and towns within the Great Plains, and major national battles over slavery were shaped by events in the region, such as the Missouri Compromise and “Bloody Kansas.”
Dr. Michael Verney, assistant professor of history at Drury, is a lead organizer of the proposal, along with Drury provost Dr. Beth Harville. Drury faculty are working closely with members of Springfield’s Black community in shaping the proposal. Verney says there are a number of ideas and concepts for approaching the topic being explored, including an oral history project centering on the four historically Black churches located in central Springfield (two of which are now on the Drury campus), a photo portrait project and collaborations with the Black History Summer Academy, the Peoples’ History Café, and the Springfield-Greene County African-American Heritage Trail. Lectures, panel discussions and further research projects conducted by Drury students are also likely if Drury is selected.
“There are some powerful stories to be told about persistence, survival and endurance in the face of oppression, not only in Springfield and Ozarks but across our region,” Verney says.
The grant funding is slated to last through 2023. The grant project would culminate in a planned academic conference with community events that year. Verney says Drury is already in communication with other finalist institutions in the eight-state Great Plains region, and that all are interested in participating in one way or another.
“Regardless of who wins, we will partner with other finalists and work together to tell this vitally important story in ways that are authentic, truthful and promote understanding,” he says.
Financial support for the “Legacies of Slavery” project is also provided by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with supplemental funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Media Contact: Mike Brothers, Executive Director of University Relations, (417) 873-7390 or mikebrothers@drury.edu
