This video project brings Myra Davis-Branic and Frye Gaillard together for two vibrant discussions about their family histories and a rich dialogue about the shared history of the South. Myra Davis-Branic's ancestors were enslaved by Frye Gaillard's family, and their conversations, facilitated by oral historian and folklorist Dr. Kern Jackson, offer a powerful perspective on race, history, and community in the present. The project also includes two brief videos discussing the historic significance of Toulmin House and the collection at the University of South Alabama Archaeology Museum.
Featured Presenters:
Myra Davis-Branic is an African America educator in South Carolina and the author of Cornbread My Soul: The Davis Family of Eutawville, South Carolina
Frye Gaillard, former Writer in Residence at the University of South Alabama, is a prize-winning author of more than 30 books, including Lessons from the Big House: One Family's Passage Through the History of the South
Dr. Kern Jackson Director of the African American Studies Program at the University of South Alabama, facilitates these discussions about family history and identity in relation to the larger context of slavery and racial justice in the American South.
Jennifer Knutson, the Assistant Director of the University of South Alabama Archaeology Museum, has excavated sites across northern Frloride from St. Augustine to Pensacola, including the French Huguenot Colony of Campbelltown
Thanks to the Alabama Humanities Alliance, the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Innovation in Learning Center, and the Department of English at the University of South Alabama for their support of this project. For more information contact english@southalabama.edu