Summersell Center to host conference

The Frances S. Summersell Center at the University is hosting a conference titled "Race & Place in the American South," Friday and Saturday at the AIME Building.

The conference plans to cover topics such as "Foodways and Folkways," "Veterans and Vagrants in the New and Modern South" and "Race and Leisure in the New South."

The featured speaker for the conference will be Raymond Arsenault, the John Hope Franklin professor of history at the University of South Florida. Arsenault is scheduled to speak at 4:30 p.m. Friday in 111 AIME Building. His talk is titled "Freedom Riders: History, Human Rights, and Law."

Kari Frederickson, director of the Summersell Center and associate professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the conference should pull new people into the history profession.

In addition to the conference, the center is also engaging undergraduate researchers in projects that shed light on a corner of Alabama history - the designs and life of Wallace A. Rayfield, a black architect who worked in Alabama during the first half of the 20th century.

"It is difficult to underestimate the importance of Wallace Rayfield's contribution to the built environment of Alabama and the South," Frederickson said. "He designed and built hundreds of churches, homes for both whites and blacks and schools at a time when opportunities for African-Americans were extremely lacking."

The Summersell Center is working with the Hunter Chapel, one of three churches in the Tuscaloosa area Rayfield helped to design. They hope to help restore church documents and secure preservation funds. Rayfield also helped to design Bailey's Tabernacle and Weeping Mary Baptist Church.

The center is also working with the UA Press to develop a bibliographic database of all Civil War manuscript materials. They are also working on the Bankhead Family History Project, a five-year program researching the impact of the Bankhead family on the history of Alabama, the region and the nation.

Building on the resources available, Frederickson said the center is dedicated to building an international reputation as an institution dedicated to examining the diverse cultures of the American South and the larger Gulf South region through research, teaching and public programs.