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Speaker analyzes Jim Crow laws

BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo

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by Carl Jaeger

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The former president of the American Historical Association spoke at the University of Wisconsin Monday about African-Americans who grew up in the era immediately following the Civil War.

Thomas Holt, a decorated University of Chicago history professor, focused on the social progression of black Americans in spite of the notorious Jim Crow laws in the first of three lectures at the Pyle Center.

Holt touched on the notion of "work" as documented through examples of the lives of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois and Anna Julia Cooper, discussing how African-Americans of the time "needed both freedom and the aspire to dream."

According to Holt, the first generation of African-Americans after the Civil War created a new attitude, and referred to themselves as the "New Negroes." The "New Negroes" were self-tutored and driven by their own "character and will," Holt said, fostering a newfound determination toward vocational identity.

David McDonald, chair of the UW history department, said Holt's featured lectures offer a unique experience to the UW community.

"[Holt] has given really close but accessible consideration of events we often don't think clearly about," McDonald said.

The purpose of his lectures, Holt said, is to pay attention to a particular generation of blacks with "more sensitivity," rather than "more sympathy."

Issues of segregation, he noted, are not completely resolved and are still prevalent today in educational society.

The Merle Curti Lecture series, named after a former professor in the UW history department, was created in 1976 to commemorate Curti's 25 years of service to the university.

"It's a great honor to be here to speak," Holt said. "Curti was a great historian, and this is a great lecture series, which I'm honored to speak at."

The second and third part lectures of Holt's series, titled "Work, Culture and Liberty: Contesting Jim Crow at the Turn of the 20th Century," will be held today and tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the Pyle Center's Vandenberg Auditorium. Both events are free and open to the public.