Columbia State Community College will host its thirty-seventh annual “Celebrating Our American Heritage” lecture series this fall, with presentations sponsored by the Columbia State Department of History designed to illuminate the past and enhance our understanding of the present.

On October 3, Greg Mewbourn, Columbia State associate professor of history, will present “Triumph and Tragedy in the Civil Rights Movement: The March on Washington and the Bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.” To many Americans, the March on Washington, held in August 1963, appeared a crowning achievement in the Civil Rights Movement. Only weeks later, the nation was shocked by the brutal bombing of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, an attack which claimed the lives of four young girls. Mewbourn will examine both events and discuss the impact of each on the Civil Rights Movement.

On October 16, Emily Senefeld, Columbia State adjunct professor of history, will present “The Lone Rock Stockade: Convict Leasing in Tennessee.” Senefeld will use the history of the Lone Rock Stockade in Grundy County, as well as the uprising that occurred there, to explore the history of convict leasing in Tennessee in the decades after the Civil War—a  story that culminated in the passage of a recent amendment to the Tennessee State Constitution.  Among other sources, Senefeld will draw upon her own archival research for the ongoing Tennessee Convict Stockade Project. 

On October 30, Halloween eve, Dr. Barry Gidcomb, Columbia State dean of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division and professor of history, will present “Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the Harrison Horror.” Gidcomb will reprise his presentation, with new material, on the odious practice of grave robbing, or “body snatching,” which was fueled by the founding of medical schools in America in the 19th century and the demand for cadavers to be used for instructional purposes. Among the stolen was the body of a prominent citizen whose father and son were both elected President of the United States. 

On November 14, Zach Kinslow, Columbia State alum and executive director of the Governor Frank G. Clement Railroad Hotel Museum in Dickson, Tennessee, will present “WELCOME? A History of the Quest for United States Citizenship and the American Response.” From the founding of the United States to modern day America, the idea of who could immigrate and obtain citizenship has been a continually contentious debate. Kinslow will present a program detailing the history of U.S. Citizenship and its evolution (and sometimes devolution) from the formation of the Constitution to modern citizenship laws.

The American Heritage series lectures are free and open to the public. Each lecture will take place from 4 – 5:15 p.m. in room 118 of the Frank G. Clement Building on the Columbia Campus at 1665 Hampshire Pike.