Unfinished Business: From the Great Migration to Black Lives Matter

Dr. Stephanie C. Boddie, Metro-Urban Institute senior consultant, brings the past to life through oral histories, film, and music. A classically trained soprano, Boddie sings several well-known spirituals including Lord, How Come Me Here, My Lord What A Mornin’, and Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel. The African American Music Institute’s Boys Choir will also perform under the direction of Dr. James T. Johnson Jr. and Mr. Howard Alexander III. Following the musical documentary will be a moderated panel with a Q&A and a reception. This program is created to appeal to intergenerational audiences and to invite discussion by community members.

Building upon her own research as well as that of scholars from Dr. W.E.B. DuBois to Dr. Joe Trotter, Boddie provides historical context for the African American experience and the various migrations of African Americans. Through this program, she connects the themes of resistance and resilience experienced from the Trans-Atlantic slave passage to the Great Migration’s silent revolution to the louder voices of the Black Lives Matter Movement.