"Keep Your Eyes on the Prize: Black Christianity and the Unfinished Quest for Emancipation" is the culminating event of the year-long series of events focusing on the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Rather than viewing this as an event which took place in the past, the Symposium begins with the premise that Emancipation is on ongoing process and explores the historical and contemporary relationships between African American Christianity and political activism. Bringing together leading scholars of African American religion, literature and history, the Symposium asks how the theological, cultural and institutional resources of the Black Church help us understand the relationship between slavery, segregation, and contemporary problems such as mass incarceration, and the erosion of Fourth Ammendment rights. Consisting of two panels and a closing discussion, the Symposium is being held in conjunction with the Nellie Y. McKay Lecture by Eddie Glaude, Jr., and the Wisconsin Union Directorate's Distinguished Lecture by Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow." Participants include Barbara Savage, Paul Harvey, Ed Pavlic, Missy Dehn Kubitschek, Josef Sorett and Matthew Z. Harper.

Lunch will be provided for attendees who RSVP. For additional information, please contact rsvp [at] irh.wisc.edu

This event was made possible through the support of the Burdick-Vary Fund, the Anonymous Fund, the Institute for Research in the Humanities, the Center for the Humanities, the Department of English, the Department of Afro-American Studies, the Department of History, and the Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions.