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| The Origin and Goals of the Symposium Three years ago Washington and Lee University began an initiative designed to develop a more inclusive campus by constituting the Committee for a More Inclusive Community. One of the many recommendations offered by the committee, was to include John Chavis into the historic canon of the University. As a result the President convened a Chavis Committee, Chaired by Farris Hotchkiss, and made up of Theodore C. DeLaney, Associate Professor of History, Toussaint Crawford, '03, James Farrar, Assistant to the President, Courtney Penn, Associate Dean of Students, and Latoya Sherron, '03 to recommend strategies. One of the Chavis Committee's recommendation was to fund a biennial symposium named for John Chavis to discuss critical contemporary issues relating to racial and ethnic diversity in the United States. The concept of this symposium is unique because it aims to engage students as active participants, serving on panels along with experts. The symposium will also serve as the focal point for a semester long interdisciplinary collaboration in Law, History, Sociology, Journalism, Politics and Economics.. John Chavis, prominent African American Presbyterian minister and educator,
studied at both the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and Liberty Hall
Academy (Washington and Lee University) during the last decade of the
nineteenth century. The Lexington Presbytery examined and admitted him
as a Presbyterian licentiate in 1801. Mr. Chavis opened a school in North
Carolina and taught the sons of both prominent whites and poor free blacks.
Chavis lived from 1763 to 1838. Chavis was the first college educated
African American in the United States. Local connections to this case include John W. Davis, Washington and
Lee Alumnus and attorney for the state of South Carolina, and Roanoke
native Oliver Hill, lawyer for the plaintiff. |