The Baton Foundation, in partnership with the Auburn Avenue Research Library for African American Culture and History, is thrilled to offer a lecture about the life and work of civil rights activist Helen Nannie Burroughs. This program is free to the public, but registration is required.

About the Book

Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879–1961) is one of many Black intellectuals whose work has been long excluded from the literary canon. In her time, Burroughs was a celebrated Black female activist (or “race woman”), educator, and intellectual.

Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Documentary Portrait of an Early Civil Rights Pioneer, 1900-1959 (University of Notre Dame Press, 2019), represents a landmark contribution to the Black intellectual historical project by allowing readers to experience Burroughs in her own words. This anthology of her works written between 1900 and 1959 encapsulates Burroughs’ work as a theologian, philosopher, activist, educator, intellectual, and evangelist, as well as the myriad ways her career resisted definition.

During her life, Burroughs rubbed elbows with Black historical icons such as W. E. B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Church Terrell, and Mary McLeod Bethune, and these interactions represent much of the existing, easily available literature on her life.

This book aims to spark a conversation about Burroughs’ life and work by making available her own tracts on God, sin, the intersections of church and society, Black womanhood, education, and social justice. Moreover, the volume is an important addition to the growing movement toward excavating Black intellectual and philosophical thought and reformulating the literary canon to bring a diverse array of voices to the table. PURCHASE BOOK HERE.

About the Author

Kelisha B. Graves is a higher education educator, author, and speaker. She is completing a doctorate in educational leadership with a concentration in higher education. Professor Graves is an interdisciplinary and global scholar whose research interests include educational leadership and administration, teaching and learning, culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment, curriculum planning and development, educational technology, socio-cultural knowledges, critical race theory, Africana philosophy, and African American intellectual history. She also maintains interests in global education policy and international development with a specific focus on Africa. Graves has delivered lectures to national and international audiences. She has authored and/or co-authored works in the fields of education, Black history, and philosophy.

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