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Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Lecture

DC History Conference Opening Event

Each year, the DC History Conference celebrates historian and educator Letitia Woods Brown with this lecture featuring a distinguished scholar of DC history. This year welcomes Tamika Nunley, PhD.

The DC Public Library is pleased to host the 49th Annual DC History Conference, which takes place March 23 – 25, 2023 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. This three-day event is FREE to all attendees. The conference opens Thursday night with the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Lecture. Sessions continue Friday and Saturday.

Visit the DC History Conference website for the full schedule of events.

Please note: Whether you are attending one session or the entire conference, we ask that you fill out the registration form. Registration is free of charge.

Note: Whether you plan to attend all weekend, one day, or even just one panel, we ask that you fill out our registration form. This free registration gives you access to the entire conference program.

When registering, you have the option to preview and select conference sessions to build your own schedule. You can also complete this step later, in the conference app. After you register, you’ll receive a confirmation email from support@exposent.com.

Questions about registration? Email us at conference@dchistory.org.

About the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Lecture:

Each year, the DC History Conference celebrates historian and educator Letitia Woods Brown with an opening lecture featuring a distinguished scholar of DC history. With the support of the Murray family, we honor Letitia Woods Brown for her contribution to the study of DC history.

About the presenter: Tamika Nunley, PhD

Tamika Nunley is Associate Professor of history and the Sandler Family Faculty Fellow of American studies at Cornell University. In addition to her many articles, essays, and reviews, she is the author of At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, DC, which received the 2021 Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Award. This year, Dr. Nunley will release her new book, The Demands of Justice: Enslaved Women, Capital Crime, and Clemency in Early Virginia.

Black Women’s History as American History & the Everyday Struggles of Liberty and Justice

Black women—enslaved, fugitive, and free—imagined new identities and lives for themselves in 19th-century Washington, DC. The capital city was founded on the premise of liberty, and yet it was a center of urban slavery and an abolitionist target. Nunley reveals how Black women navigated the growing slave trade, strict Black codes, and rigid social restrictions intended to prevent them from ever experiencing liberty, self-respect, and power. She traces how Black women developed their own ideas about liberty as they navigated the city, escaped from slavery, initiated lawsuits for their freedom, created economic opportunities, pursued education, and participated in political work. In telling these stories, Nunley places Black women at the center of DC history in a momentous era.  

About Letitia Woods Brown

Letitia Woods Brown was born on October 24, 1915, in Tuskegee, Alabama, to a family with strong ties to the Tuskegee Institute—known today as Tuskegee University. She received her BS from Tuskegee Institute and taught elementary school in Alabama before pursuing her graduate studies at Ohio State University and Harvard University. In 1966, Dr. Brown received her PhD in history from Harvard University after completing a dissertation centered on free and enslaved African Americans in Washington, DC. She went on to teach at Howard University and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship. Dr. Brown joined the faculty of George Washington University in 1971 and taught there until her untimely passing in 1976. 

About the DC History Conference

The DC Public Library is pleased to host the 49th Annual DC History Conference, which takes place March 23 – 25, 2023 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. This three-day event is FREE to all attendees. 

The DC History Conference welcomes students, community members, educators, artists, storytellers, and cultural heritage workers to join us at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library for this FREE, three-day event. Visit the DC History Conference website for the full schedule of events.

The DC History Conference is an interdisciplinary, community conference considering the past, present, and future of the District. The conference is co-presented by the DC History Center, DC Public Library, and HumanitiesDC; sponsored by American University; and organized by a volunteer planning committee.

Since 1973, the conference organizers have aimed to prov­ide a welcoming, educational, and stimulating forum for original research and engagement with the history of the Washington, DC metropolitan area, including Maryland, Virginia, and the federal government.

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