12th Annual Dorothy Perry Thompson Colloquium is Set for Monday, Feb. 18

Quick Facts

Historian David S. Cecelski's lecture is entitled "The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves’ Civil War" and tells the story of Galloway, a fugitive slave, Union spy and leader figure.

The lecture is set for 7 p.m. Feb. 18.

It is a free cultural event.

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Adolphus Belk

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Passionate historian David S. Cecelski will serve as the keynote speaker for Winthrop University’s 12th Annual Dorothy Perry Thompson Colloquium, set for 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 18.

Cecelski’s lecture, entitled “The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves’ Civil War,” recounts the story of Galloway’s life as a fugitive slave, a Union spy and a leader figure for former slaves in North Carolina.

A North Carolina native, Cecelski has spent much of his career writing and teaching extensively on civil rights and North Carolina coastal history. A recipient of an Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights and the Walter Hines Page Award for Literature, Cecelski earned degrees from Duke University and Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. He was East Carolina University’s Distinguished Visiting Professor in Humanities from 2000-01.

Published books include “The Waterman's Song: Slavery and Freedom in Maritime North Carolina,” “A Historian's Coast: Adventures into the Tidewater Past” and “Along Freedom Road: Hyde County, North Carolina, and the Fate of Black Schools in the South.”

He contributes monthly to “Listening to History,” an oral history series in the Raleigh News & Observer.

The lecture will be in Whitton Auditorium, located within Vivian Moore Carroll Hall. It is a free cultural event and is open to the public.

The colloquium honors late English professor Dorothy Perry Thompson, founder of Winthrop’s minor in African American Studies program, Adolphus Belk, director of the program and associate professor of political science has explained. The colloquium also offers the opportunity to "bring in nationally- and internationally-renowned writers and scholars to talk about different aspects of the African American experience."

Event sponsors are the minor in African American studies.

For more information, contact Belk at 803/323-4581 or belka@winthrop.edu.

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