G – Going Back to 1972 Black Religion Symposium

For this year’s A to Z Challenge, I will be posting an event for that date involving someone in my family tree. Of course it will also involve the letter of the day. It may be a birth, a death, a christening, a journal entry, a letter or a newspaper article. If the entry is a news item, it will be transcribed immediately below. Click on photographs to enlarge in another window.

My father, Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr. later Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman

For several years after the 1967 Detroit Riot/Rebellion, my father received many invitations to speak around the United States. His participation in the Duke University Black Religion Symposium was one such instance.

For those who want to hear more from the Black Religion Symposium, audio of the speeches is available here -> Black Religion Symposium. The date on this page is for August, but the paper above gives April as the date and I’m going with that date. My father is the first speaker after the introduction.


20 thoughts on “G – Going Back to 1972 Black Religion Symposium

  1. it’s interesting that they had a panel about his theology as well later that day. looking forward to listening to the speeches in the other post!

    1. oooo i see now that it’s audio that Duke has archived, i’m glad they were in the practice of recording conferences.

  2. It never ceases to amaze me how much has been documented and archived over the decades and it just sitting there waiting for us to re-discover it! Such wonderful blessings!

  3. Thanks for sharing this part of your family’s history. I’m so happy Duke University recorded the speeches and made them available online for the public.

  4. Very interesting, thank you for writing this. My only problem is I can’t figure out how to follow your blog where it appears in followed blogs rather than email.

    1. I follow blogs on feedly. There are probably other platforms to follow on. I don’t know if there is a way to follow it directly from my blog except for the email, which is at the bottom of my blog.

  5. Wow, history is presented so chronologically, one dimensional. Something about this post – not sure if it’s the learning the this conference took place or the contemplating what they talked about that really made reflect on how history is just as constant, full and complex as the present… the every day of it- people planning conferences, delivering presentations, figuring out dinner, etc. etc… just like the present which will be the future tomorrow…

  6. These documents are priceless. I have to get to bed but couldn’t resist going to the site to take a little listen. The recording is clear, but I’ll have to listen with headphones. And yes, as other comments have said, the panel on your father’s theology sounds so interesting, and with him as the respondent.

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