Between the Columns with Kevin Gaines, Caroline Janney, and Jalane Schmidt

Moderated by Brian P. Brown '87, Parent '24

Co-Hosted by the Richmond Regional Board of the College Foundation

Confederate Monuments are being removed from their pedestals across the country at a rapid pace, accelerated in part by the racial unrest due to the killing of George Floyd this summer. On the famed Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA, the former capital of the Confederacy, statues that once celebrated Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Jefferson Davis, and J.E.B. Stuart have been removed in just the past few months. The Robert E. Lee statue remains while its fate is determined.

The debate about Confederate Monuments has been occurring for years, yet many questions remain. There are a range of topics and issues to consider in the aftermath of the removal of these symbols. How do these issues relate to our understanding of history and memory? How does the history of Monument Avenue reflect or deviate from experiences in other cities? What is different about this moment in time?

Join Professor Kevin Gaines, Professor Caroline E. Janney, and Professor Jalane Schmidt as they explore these thought-provoking questions from their own diverse areas of expertise and answer your questions.

All alumni, parents, and friends are welcome to join in this discussion. Please check your email for a viewing link prior to the event. The conversation will be recorded and shared.

Have questions? Contact: CollegeEvents@virginia.edu

This event is #open to all alumni, parents, and friends! #DigitalEvent

Kevin Gaines is the inaugural Julian Bond Professor of Civil Rights and Social Justice with a joint appointment in the Corcoran Department of History and the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies. He was recently named a Senior Fellow at the Miller Center for Public Affairs.

Professor Gaines' current research focuses on the problems and projects of racial integration in the United States during and after the Civil Rights Movement. He is the author of many books including Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture During the Twentieth Century (UNC Press, 1996), winner of the American Studies Associations' John Hope Franklin Book Prize. He also wrote American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era (UNC Press, 2006), a Choice Outstanding Title. His forthcoming book is entitled The African American Journey: A Global History. He is a past president of the American Studies Association (2009-2010).

Caroline E. Janney is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War and Director of the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History. She is a three-time graduate of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences with a BA in Government (1998) and MA and Ph.D in History (2001 and 2005, respectively).

Professor Janney specializes in the study of the U.S. Civil War, 19th Century U.S. History, Women and Gender History, and Myth and Memory. An active public lecturer, she has given presentations across the globe and is a speaker with the Organization of American Historians' Distinguished Lectureship program and a recipient of the Kenneth T. Kofmehl Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award from Purdue's College Series. Additionally, she is the past president of the Society of Civil War Historians. She has published five books, most recently Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation and Petersburg to Appomattox: The End of the War in Virginia (both University of North Carolina Press).

Jalane Schmidt is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, where she teaches courses on race, religion, and social change movements. She is the author of Cachita's Streets: The Virgin of Charity, Race & Revolution in Cuba, a study of Cuban national identity, religion, and public events.

A scholar-activist in Charlottesville, Virginia, Professor Schmidt sits on the city's Historic Resources Committee, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center Advisory Committee, and plans and leads public history events which focus on local African American history. She and other racial justice activists organized to increase the #MoveTheStatue constituency turnout for Charlottesville's 2016 Blue Ribbon Commission meetings on the disposition of Confederate monuments, and she cofounded the 2019-2020 Monumental Justice Virginia campaign which successfully overturned a century-old state law which had prohibited localities from removing Confederate statues. 

Brian P. Brown is a Professor in the Department of Marketing and Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). His research focuses on brand strategy, specifically in B2B settings. He earned his BA from the University of Virginia, his MBA from Duke, and his Ph.D. from Georgia State University.

Professor Brown has been published in several of marketing's top academic journals and serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Business Research. He recently co-edited an Industrial Marketing Management special issue on B2B Advertising. Prior to embarking on his second career in academia, Dr. Brown worked in corporate America including several years at the Coca-Cola Company as a Brand Manager of Coca-Cola classic and as Vice President of Marketing at Snapper Power Equipment. He is a co-chair of the University of Virginia's Richmond Regional Board of the College Foundation.