Department of History History Forum COLLIN COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

The 13^th Cotton & Rural History Conference
Saturday, April 18, 2009, 9:30 AM-1:30 PM
Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum, Greenville, Texas

"Dairy Farms, Market Gardens and Watermelon Patches: African American Farming in Texas Cotton Country”
Debra A. Reid
Eastern Illinois University

The 2009 keynote speaker is Dr. Debra A. Reid, Associate Professor of History at Eastern Illinois University, where she teaches courses in American history, rural and minority history, and material culture. Dr. Reid is the winner of prestigious writing awards from the Agricultural History Society and the Texas Historical Commission. Her publications include the award-winning Reaping a Greater Harvest: African Americans, The Extension Service, and Rural Reform in Jim Crow Texas (Texas A&M University Press, 2007) as well as chapters in recent books and contributions to scholarly journals such as Agricultural History, Rural History, and the Tennessee Historical Quarterly. Her most recent essay, "Racism and Sexism in Rural Texas: The Contested Nature of Progressive Reform, 1870s-1910s," appears in the forthcoming Seeking Inalienable Rights: Texans and Their Quests for Justice (Texas A&M University Press, 2009), a tribute to pioneering Texas social historian Robert A. Calvert, Jr. She is presently at work on a book manuscript entitled "The Political Meanings of African American Farm and Property Ownership."

"The FIS School: A Tuskegee for Texas?"
Paul E. Sturdevant
Paris Junior College

Founded by the fascinating and multi-talented Robert Lloyd Smith, the Farmers' Improvement Society agricultural college near Wolfe City, Hunt County, Texas, sought to fulfill Booker T. Washington's program of racial progress through self-help. Historian and author Paul E. Sturdevant will present his research on this forgotten educational enterprise.

“Shooting Poverty: The Politics of New Deal Photography”
Rebecca Hartman
Eastern Oregon University

Dr. Rebecca Hartman writes, "Who is not familiar with Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother?” Is there a U.S. history survey text that does not include an image of farmers in the Dustbowl?" But, did the urban Americans viewing the photographs see them as their makers intended? Her presentation explores the tensions between 1930s rural and urban American values and the radical goal of saving the family farm.

“When Cotton Was King”
Susan Lanning
Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum

Cotton played a significant role in the development and growth of Hunt County, Texas. Museum president Susan Lanning will trace cotton's historic impact from small beginnings in the 1800s through its heyday in the early 1900s to it's decline beginning in the 1930s. This presentation will take you on a fascinating photographic journey through the history of cotton in an area where world records were made and broken.

The conference is sponsored each year by the Department of History, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Collin College, and the Archives and Oral History Program, Texas A&M University – Commerce. A $10 registration fee includes lunch. Advance reservations may be made by contacting the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum, 600 Interstate 30 East, P.O. Box 347, Greenville, Texas 75403. The museum can be reached by telephone at (903) 454-1990 or (903) 450-4502.

Directions to the Museum

Past Cotton and Rural History Conferences

For the past twelve years the conference has benefited from the generosity of notable and award-winning scholars working in the fields of social, agricultural and rural history, folklore and the oral narrative. They have included J. Brett Adams, Jacques D. Bagur, D. Clayton Brown, Walter Buenger, the late Robert A. Calvert, Jr., Randolph B. "Mike" Campbell, Adrienne Caughfield, Edward Countryman, Pamela Gaiter, Chris Grooms, John Hanners, Paul Harvey, Jr., Karen Gerhardt, Eric Gruver, Melissa LaPrelle, Gwendolyn Lawe, John Lundberg, Kay Mizell, Lois E. Myers, Kristopher Paschal, Deborah Porter, Jeri Reed, Debra Reid, Rebecca Sharpless, Thad Sitton, James M. Smallwood, Susanne Summers, Carol Taylor, Sam Tullock, Stephen A. Townsend, Keith Volanto, Jeannie Whayne, Patricia Wingate, Lee Winniford and Dan K. Utley.

Presenters have represented colleges, universities, libraries and museums from across Texas and the nation including the University of Arkansas, Baylor University, Burton Cotton Gin Museum, Collin College, Hill College, Heritage Farmstead Museum, the University of Houston, the University of Illinois-Chicago, A. C. McMillan African-American Museum, New Mexico Junior College, the University of North Texas, Oklahoma State University, St. Edward's University, Southern Methodist University, Texas A&M University - College Station, Texas A&M University - Commerce, Texas A&M University – Kingsville, Texas Christian University, Texas Woman's University and the Weslaco Bi-Cultural Museum.

Kyle Wilkison and James H. Conrad co-chair the annual event and welcome paper proposals from historians working in the fields of rural, social or agricultural history. Please submit proposals via email to each address listed below:

James H. Conrad, Ph.D. james_conrad@tamu-commerce.edu University Archivist James G. Gee Library Archives and Oral History Program P.O. Box 3011 Texas A&M University-Commerce Commerce, Texas 75429-3011 903-886-5737 Back to History Department	Kyle Wilkison, Ph.D. Kwilkison@CCCCD.edu Professor of History Department of History Division of Social Sciences Collin County Community College Plano, Texas 75074 (972) 881-5834 FAX: (972) 881-5700 Back to Wilkison Home Page
Allen, Frisco, McKinney, Plano and Rockwall, Texas Copyright © 2008 Collin County Community College District. All Rights Reserved. Page maintained by Kyle Wilkison