Black Migration Narratives- Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin

I attended the keynote speaker for the Black History Month Conference, Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin's lecture on February 27, 2009. Her topic was the power of the slave narratives and the movement of the African American people; pertaining specifically to the 1940s and the influence of World War II. However, she first gave a detailed, but interesting background on how the emancipated slaves moved throughout the country after the Civil War. They walked for miles and miles in order to re-unite with families and start over. As they moved about, their culture came with them, as did the slave experience. After providing the right amount of context information, she moved to the central part of her discussion: the role African Americans played in World War II and how these actions laid the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. She argued that the Second Great Migaration, and the Double V Campaign (victory abroad, victory at home), contributed the Civil Rights Movement in the decades to follow. During this period, blacks became very vocal social critics. She explained how different art forms, including music and the Lindy hop, helped blacks maintain an identity as free human beings while they fought for their freedom from the Jim Crow laws.

I thought Dr. Griffin's lecture was very interesting. While I learned some of the background she provided through years of US history, I learned a lot from her talk. She put a new spin on things and kept us interested by focusing on the early movements of the 1940s versus the much more publicized Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s (which many of us already know a lot of detail about). Her speech was very planned out, and even though she sometimes rambled with an example/story, she stayed on task for a majority of her speech. She connected to her audience by preparing and utilizing a PowerPoint, which not only helped us follow along but also kept her on target as well. The PowerPoint was straightforward and simple, with enough writing to summarize her point but not enough to be overwhelming (and had room for plenty of pictures). Finally, she incorporated technology into the very end of her speech. She finished her lecture by showing us a video on YouTube clip of some African Americans doing the famous Lindy hop on stage. Dance was a major form of movement she emphasized, and like she said herself, the point was clearer to the audience when she provided a visual because the true experience of this dance was beyond words. Overall, I thought she did an excellent job of keeping on track, connecting and maintaining the audience, and presenting relevant and interesting information within an hour time span.