Historical figures with divisive racial convictions and deep connections to the University of the South will gain fresh attention on Tuesday, March 27, at 7 p.m. at Sewanee Spoken Word.

The bi-weekly event at the Blue Chair Café & Tavern will feature readings from research compiled by the University’s Project on Slavery, Race and Reconciliation, a six-year exploration of Sewanee’s roots and historical ties to the Confederacy and Antebellum South.

“Sewanee Spoken Word, in addition to being free, offers a pretty unusual opportunity for social and cultural cross-pollination,” said Brooks Egerton, an organizer of the event. “Our sessions generally include not just faculty and students, but also quite a few people who have no connection to the University. You’ll almost certainly meet someone new and interesting; you’re likely to hear something thought-provoking.”

Tanner Potts, research associate for the Slavery Project, will read Rev. Wm. T. Leacock’s 1860 Thanksgiving sermon in which the University trustee urges Louisiana to secede from the Union. Potts said Leacock and other priests in New Orleans were jailed by occupying Union forces for refusing to include President Lincoln in the Episcopal Church’s “Prayers of the People.”

In addition, David Johnson, C’19, will read from his research on the Quitman family and John A. Quitman, a University benefactor who supported the filibuster movement in the 1850s and sent resources to incite revolutions in the Caribbean, Egerton said. After the Civil War, two of Quitman’s daughters lived where the Hunter Dorm now stands.

Elizabeth Chandler, C’20, will also present letters from Jessie Ball duPont, who gave millions to the University in the 1950s and 60s, with the caveat of keeping the University segregated.

“I think what will be most surprising is the indentations left by these figures on our physical place,” Potts said. “You can walk by Hunter Dorm or the duPont library and miss this history, but, as an institution that prides itself in place based studies, we still have so much to learn about ourselves. Our hope, as I believe Slavery Project Director Woody Register mentioned at our last forum, is for people to think about these icons, memorials and figures on their own.”

Potts said both Chandler and Johnson spent time in the University Archives and Special Collections researching the historical figures with a goal of publishing their own scholarship.

“One of our project goals is to make the archives and the history of the University more accessible; hopefully presentations in the community, performed by students, leads to more involvement,” he said.

Sewanee Spoken Word, previously known as Sewanee Poetry Night, is now in its third year and has branched out to include a variety of expressions.

“These gatherings at the Blue Chair began as celebrations of poetry, and poetry remains a mainstay. But there’s so much other creative activity around here—fiction being written, plays, memoirs, essays, songs and more—that the evolution seemed quite natural,” Egerton said.