Detroit U studies Underground Railroad

It is being co-sponsored by the Detroit River Project, the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission, and other organizations in Michigan and Ontario. It is timed to correspond with the restoration and rededication of the International Underground Railroad Monument by sculptor Ed Dwight at Hart Plaza in Detroit on October 22.

The opening keynote speaker will be David. W. Blight, one of the leading authorities on the Civil War era in American history, who will speak on "The Underground Railroad: Real and Mythic." Blight is the Class of 1954 Professor and the Director of the Gilder Lerhman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University.

He is the author of many books on the Underground Railroad and the Civil War, including the award-winning "Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory." His "Passages to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and Memory" is used in UDM's Undeground Railroad course. His talk will be from 9:00-11:00 a.m. on October 19.

Among the speakers over the three days are the authors of the forthcoming book "A Fluid Frontier: Slavery, Freedom, and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland," Karolyn Smardz Frost of York University, and representatives of the National Park Service and other organizations.

On the final day, the Detroit Collaborative Design Center will lead a charette to further future planning. Preregistration (by check or money order) is $65, made out to the University of Detroit Mercy, with "UGRR Conference" in the memo line, is available until October 15. Registration at the conference is $75.