Labor, Race, and the Search for Freedom in North Carolina

A special Juneteenth Dialogues Seminar

The history of work and laboring people in North Carolina has been entangled with ideas and social systems that placed Black workers in the most vulnerable and disadvantaged positions. How did racial ideologies and social practices shape the lives of our state’s Black workers and their struggle for equal rights and freedom from the era of enslaved labor to the era of the 20th-century Civil Rights movement? This seminar honors the legacy of Juneteenth commemorations with the insights of two historians whose work examines the complex intersection of labor, racism, and the quest for equality in modern North Carolina.

TOPICS & SPEAKERS

“All We Knowed was Work, and Hard Work”: Enslaved Workers and the Economic System in Pre-Civil War North Carolina
Antwain K. Hunter, Assistant Professor of History

Labor Rights are Civil Rights: Black Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the 20th-Century South
Robert Korstad, Professor of Public Policy and History Emeritus, Duke University

How Did Black Workers Build the Economy and Lead the Struggle for Human Rights in North Carolina?
A panel discussion with our speakers

TIME & TUITION

9:00am-12:30pm, June 17. The tuition is $65 to attend in person or $50 for virtual viewing.  A meal will not be offered with this seminar.

UNC Students can attend for free, but pre-registration is required. Discounts are available for UNC faculty, & staff. To register as a UNC Student, Staff, or Faculty, see our Registration Policy here.

Co-Sponsored by the General Alumni Association.  For information about GAA discounts and other scholarships available to Humanities Program participants, click here.

*In-Person Registration for this event closes on June 16 at 3pm*

 Register online or call us at 919.962.1544. 

Participants will receive an email with venue information and background information about 1 week before the program.

Special Offer for K-12 Educators

Current K-12 teachers may attend this seminar in person or online at no charge, thanks to the generous support of friends of CPH. To attend in person, complete this application form.

***If your application for in-person attendance is accepted, you will need to provide a credit card number via phone or fax to secure your space. (Instructions will be included in your acceptance e-mail.) YOUR CARD WILL NOT BE CHARGED and NO HOLD is placed on your card. We are committed to providing services to hardworking teachers for free, but failure to cancel, last minute cancellations, and “no shows” result in extreme waste and prevents wait-listed teachers from attending. Thus, failure to cancel/participate may result in a $50 “no show” fee applied to your credit card (except in the case of emergencies or sudden illness.) This charge is ONLY applied for a registrant who does not cancel their registration and/or does not show up.

K-12 teachers can register for a virtual viewing, here.

**Please note that due to UNC regulations, masks are recommended, but not required for all in-person events regardless of vaccination status. In-person and hybrid events may switch to virtual-only based upon recommendations from local, state, and national public health officials. If an in-person or hybrid event is designated “virtual-only,” the CPH staff will contact registrants and provide them with information on how to attend virtually or with options for receiving credits or refunds. If you have any questions, please email human@unc.edu or call 919.962.1544. We appreciate your flexibility during these trying times.**