Call for Papers

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Call for Papers and Witness

The University of Toledo College of Law is plea= sed to announce a universal and interdisciplinary conference on Saturday, October = 25, 2008 in Toledo, Ohio on the subject of:

1808: Fighting for the Right to Dream<= /b>

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-      =     Ada Sipuel v/ University of Oklahoma with Thurgood Marsha= ll, 1948, Norman, Oklah= oma (Courtesy of Photos by Griff Davis – Griffith J. Davis family collection)

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Scholars are invited to come= to Toledo and bear wi= tness and discuss 1808.

1808 was the year of the abolition of the importing of slaves into the United States. In this bicentennial year, how sho= uld we think about 1808? What does 1= 808 say to us? What will be said = about 1808 in 2108?

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The papers and witness being= invited in this call for papers are about the meanings of 1808. Those meanings might be found in t= he life of a slave in the United States at that time such as Barbary. Born in 1787 in Africa and sold in= to slavery in 1800 in North Carolina to the Harrison family (of Founders and Presidents fame), B= arbary was enslaved, black and twenty-one in 1808. How do we keep slave stories such = as her story alive?

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Those meanings might be foun= d in 1847 in the founding of Liberia and Liberia’s history. Or in the Civil War.= Or in Reconstruction. Or in Jim Crow. Or in 1908, year of bir= th of the late Justice Thurgood Marshall whose life was dedicated to fighting for= the right to dream.    O= r in a picture in a courtroom in Norman, Oklahoma in 1948 of Ada Sipuel dreaming of being a lawyer. Or in the mass movements of the civil rights and human rights movements. Or in 1968 with t= he assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and other momentous events. Or in a more recent rededication of efforts to achieve, protect and preserve civil and human ri= ghts for all.

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Those meanings might be foun= d in Africa and the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, = and Australia and the Pacific. What does 1808 m= ean to the world?

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This call for papers is inte= rdisciplinary and universal. Scholars from = around the world interested in presenting are invited to submit one to two page abstracts for papers on the conference theme on or before August 15, 2008 to ben.davis= @utoledo.edu.

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Scholars from around the wor= ld who may have difficulty getting visas to the United States or attending sh= ould advise of their interest on or before August 15, 2008 to ben.davis@utoledo.edu. Overseas scholars and those unable= to attend may provide a video witness of up to 10 minutes in length.

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Toledo is located in Northwestern Ohio about 50 minutes by car south of Detroit, Michigan. Participants may find the easiest connections through Detroit though planes = do fly also into Toledo airport. October 25, 2008 wil= l be a particularly interesting time to visit as Toledo is the center of the universe during most recent U.S. Presidential elections because of the crucial role that Ohio plays as a swing state.

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Organizing Committee:

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·      = Anthony Baker, Professor, American Le= gal History, Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, Campbell University, Buies Cr= eek, North Carolina

·      = Pamela Bridgewater, Professor of Law, American University, Washington College of Law, Washington, D.C.

·      = Benjamin D= avis, Associate Professor of Law, University of Toledo College of Law, <= st1:City w:st=3D"on">Toledo, Ohio

·      = Roy Finken= bine, Professor of History and Director of the Black Abolitionist Archives, University of Detroit – Mercy, Detroit, Michigan

·      = Chrisarla = Houston, Director of the Legal Writing Program and Assistant Professor of Law, Florida A & M <= st1:PlaceType w:st=3D"on">University College of Law, Orlando, Florida

·      = Professor = Dr. Sakui W.G. Malakpa, University o= f Toledo, Toledo, Ohio<= /p>
·      = Vernellia = R. Randall, Professor of Law, University of Dayton School of Law, Dayton, Ohio=