Those Who Have Must Turn Around and Give: Celebrating 40 Years of Preserving Black History and Education

Symposium Themes 

• Community Archives and Black Memory Work 
• Sustainability and Climate Change 
• Black Educational Institutions and Black Educators 
• Decolonizing Educational Curricula 
• Black Pedagogies and Epistemologies 
• Digital Humanities and Access to Black Archives 
• Education Policy and Historical Erasure 

Preconference Workshops (add-on, optional) (June 9, 2026) 

Location College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center for African American History 125 Bull St Charleston, SC 29401 

Hands-on educational and archival workshops rooted in community practice and public scholarship. 

Theme: Education (June 10, 2026) 

Exploring Black education and educators from Reconstruction to the present, inside and outside traditional classrooms through keynotes and concurrent sessions. 

Theme: Archives & Sustainability (June 11, 2026) 

Centering preservation, community archives, sustainability, and access to Black historical records through keynotes and concurrent sessions. 

Costs

Pre-conference (June 9th)

Workshops (add-on, optional) $50

Registration Includes:

• Attendance for three workshops on June 9th
• Taste of the Lowcountry bites from Chef Rashundra Grant

Symposium (June 10th and 11th)

Student rate: $50/$100/$150 (early/regular/late)
General: $235/$275/$325* see what’s included for more details
If you have a financial hardship please email DaNia Childress for more information [email protected]

Registration Includes:

• Continental breakfast
• Keynote speakers and luncheon panels
• Concurrent sessions
• Networking convening
• Closing reception

Francis Marion Hotel

387 King St

Charleston, SC 29403

Link for Reservations (TBD)

We invite organizations, publishers, institutions, and community partners to support the symposium through sponsorship and exhibitor participation. Sponsorship provides meaningful visibility while directly supporting access, programming, and community engagement. 

Sponsorship opportunities may include: 

• Logo placement on symposium materials and website 
• Complimentary registrations 
• Recognition during keynote sessions 
• Exhibit table placement 

Exhibitor opportunities are available for: 

• Book vendors and publishers 
• Cultural organizations and nonprofits 
• Academic programs and initiatives 

Sponsorship and exhibitor rates are available upon request. For more information, email DaNia Childress, Avery and Liberatory Literacies Project Director [email protected]  

Nomadic Archivists Project, Georgia Dusk with Ashby Combahee, and  Citizenship, Freedom, and Liberation: A Community School Collaborative Zine Workshop

Derrick P. Alridge is the Philip J. Gibson Professor in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia. A scholar of African American educational and intellectual history, his work explores the lived experiences, ideas, and community strategies that shaped Black schooling in the U.S. South. He is the founder and director of the Teachers in the Movement Project, an expansive oral history initiative that has conducted more than 500 videotaped interviews with teachers involved in the civil rights movement and its ongoing legacies. 

Alridge’s scholarship appears in major journals and edited collections. His recent book, Liberation and Education: Perspectives on Black Educational Thought, examines the educational philosophies of Black educators and intellectuals from the early twentieth century to the present. His current book project, Soul Work: An Oral History of Teachers in the Civil Rights Movement, extends the insights of his recent article in the Oral History journal of the British Oral History Society, where he introduced his emerging framework of soul-work epistemology and methodology  

A native of Rock Hill, South Carolina, Alridge is also a committed public historian who collaborates widely with museums, archives, and community organizations. He has delivered invited lectures and keynotes across the country, offering historical insight that speaks directly to contemporary conversations about memory, spirit, consciousness, and the education of Black people—and all people—across the South that shaped him. 

More details coming soon

Moderator

• Dr. Bobby Donaldson, University of South Carolina

Panelists

• Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson, Wellesley College
• Dr. Justin Coles, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
• Dr. Ashley Dennis, College of Charleston
• Dr. Crystal Sanders, Emory University

More details coming soon

More details coming soon

Zakiya Collier is an Afro-Carolinian archivist, memory worker, and educator. Her work and research explore the role of cooperative archival practices in sustaining cultural memory. She leads The Black Memory Workers, a community of over 300 members committed to practicing care and intention in the long-term preservation and celebration of Black life. Zakiya is currently an Adjunct Professor at Queens College (CUNY) and New York University, the Program Director for Archiving the Black Web, and recently a 2025 Create Change Bed-Stuy Artist-in-Residence with The Laundromat Project. She is also a co-producer on the forthcoming documentary film, Somebody’s Gone, and co-editor of a special double issue of The Black Scholar on Black Archival Practice. 

More details coming soon

Moderator

• Micha Broadnax, Harvard University

Panelists

• Chaitra Powell, University of Arizona
• DeLisa Minor Harris, Fisk University
• Dorothy Berry, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Kaitlyn B. Jones, The Black Ordinary

More details coming soon

More details coming soon