Call For Papers

Call for Papers and Witness

The University of Toledo College of Law is pleased to announce a universal and interdisciplinary conference on Saturday, October 25, 2008 in Toledo, Ohio on the subject of: 1808: Fighting for the Right to Dream


Scholars are invited to come to Toledo and bear witness and discuss 1808.

1808 was the year of the abolition of the importing of slaves into the United States. In this bicentennial year, how should we think about 1808? What does 1808 say to us? What will be said about 1808 in 2108?

The papers and witness being invited in this call for papers are about the meanings of 1808. Those meanings might be found in the life of a slave in the United States at that time such as Barbary. Born in 1787 in Africa and sold into slavery in 1800 in North Carolina to the Harrison family (of Founders and Presidents fame), Barbary was enslaved, black and twenty-one in 1808. How do we keep slave stories such as her story alive?

Those meanings might be found in 1847 in the founding of Liberia and Liberia’s history. Or in the Civil War. Or in Reconstruction. Or in Jim Crow. Or in 1908, year of birth of the late Justice Thurgood
Marshall whose life was dedicated to fighting for the right to dream.
Or in a picture in a courtroom in Norman, Oklahoma in 1948 of Ada Sipuel dreaming of being a lawyer. Or in the mass movements of the civil rights and human rights movements. Or in 1968 with the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and other momentous events. Or in a more recent rededication of efforts to achieve, protect and preserve civil and human rights for all.

Those meanings might be found in Africa and the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Australia and the Pacific.
What does 1808 mean to the world?

This call for papers is interdisciplinary and universal. Scholars from around the world interested in presenting are invited to submit one to two page abstracts for papers on the conference theme on or before August 15, 2008 to ben.davis@utoledo.edu.

Scholars from around the world who may have difficulty getting visas to the United States or attending should advise of their interest on or before August 15, 2008 to ben.davis@utoledo.edu. Overseas scholars and those unable to attend may provide a video witness of up to 10 minutes in length.

Toledo is located in Northwestern Ohio about 50 minutes by car south of Detroit, Michigan. Participants may find the easiest connections through Detroit though planes do fly also into Toledo airport. October 25, 2008 will be a particularly interesting time to visit as Toledo is the center of the universe during most recent U.S. Presidential elections because of the crucial role that Ohio plays as a swing state.

Organizing Committee:
· Anthony Baker, Professor, American Legal History, Norman
Adrian Wiggins School of Law, Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina
· Pamela Bridgewater, Professor of Law, American University,
Washington College of Law, Washington, D.C.
· Benjamin Davis, Associate Professor of Law, University of
Toledo College of Law, Toledo, Ohio
· Roy Finkenbine, Professor of History and Director of the Black
Abolitionist Archives, University of Detroit – Mercy, Detroit, Michigan
· Chrisarla Houston, Director of the Legal Writing Program and
Assistant Professor of Law, Florida A & M University College of Law, Orlando, Florida
· Vernellia R. Randall, Professor of Law, University of Dayton
School of Law, Dayton, Ohio