The College of Charleston Race and Social Justice Initiative will host a conference titled “Transforming Public History from Charleston to the Atlantic World” from June 15-17, 2017.

The conference will include workshops, roundtables, panels and individual papers on the interpretation, preservation, memorialization, commemoration and public application of major themes in Atlantic world history.

Lonnie G. Bunch III

Lonnie G. Bunch III, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum for African American History and Culture, will be the keynote speaker for the event.

He will deliver his speech at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church at 5 p.m. on June 15 .  The address is free and open to the public.

“The presence of Lonnie Bunch indicates the conference’s national importance, and shows how critical the story of Charleston and the Carolina Lowcountry is to the national story,” says Simon Lewis, director of the Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World Program.

The Race and Social Justice Initiative is a partnership with the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, the Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World Program, and Addlestone Library.