The second of seven annual Signature Conferences sponsored by the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission takes place on September 24, 2010. Noted historians will gather to discuss various aspects of Race, Slavery, and the Civil War: The Tough Stuff of American History and Memory.

The conference will be chaired by acclaimed historian Dr. James O. Horton. Topics include:

• Slavery, Freedom, and the Union Navy
  James McPherson (Princeton University)

• John Washington: How, When, Where and Why Emancipation Happened
  David Blight (Yale University)

• The Role of the Underground Railroad as a Cause of the
  Civil War
  Spencer Crew (George Mason University)

• The Myth of Black Confederates
  Bruce Levine (University of Illinois)

• The Quest for Black Rights in the Midst of War
  Edna Medford (Howard University)

• African American Soldiers and the Struggle for Equality
  Ira Berlin (University of Maryland)

• Addressing the Causes of the Civil War in Public History
  Dwight Pitcaithley (New Mexico State University; Chief Historian Emeritus, National Park Service)

• The Image of the Emancipation Proclamation in Art and Memory
  Harold Holzer (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

• Harriet Jacobs in the Refugee Camps
  Jean Fagan Yellin (Pace University)

• Waterways to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in
  Hampton Roads
  Cassandra Newby-Alexander (Norfolk State University)

You won't want to miss this ground-breaking program.