Register for the 2025 NCAAHC conference here.
Presenters and Entertainers
LEARN ABOUT THIS YEAR’S GUESTS.
Dr. Dennis Dickerson
Dr. Dennis C. Dickerson is the Reverend James Lawson Chair in History, Emeritus and Professor of History, Emeritus at Vanderbilt University where he began teaching in 1999. Previously, he taught at Williams College as Stanfield Professor of History. He earned a B.A. from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), an M.A. and Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, and an M.Div. from Vanderbilt University. He has written four books: Out of the Crucible: Black Steelworkers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875-1980 (Albany, State University of New York, 1986); Militant Mediator: Whitney M. Young, Jr. (Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 1998); African American Preachers and Politics: The Careys of Chicago (Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 2010); and The African Methodist Episcopal Church: A History (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2020). He is completing another book, A ‘Brother in the Spirit of Gandhi’: William Stuart Nelson and the Religious Origins of the Civil Rights Movement, and has begun writing on James M. Lawson, Jr.: A biography of Moral Insurgency. He has received fellowships and grants from the Louisville Institute, the American Academy in Berlin, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He serves on the Editorial Board of The Journal of African American History and Wesley and Methodist Studies.
Tamyra Gordon
Tamyra Gordon is a seasoned nonprofit executive with over 18 years of experience spanning education, historic preservation, government contracting, and public programming. Known for her ability to build organizational infrastructure and create sustainable solutions, Tamyra’s expertise includes curriculum design, community engagement modeling, program management, operational efficiency, and a global perspective on national programming. Her professional journey is driven by her commitment to family, community, and the preservation of Black history. Tamyra represents the Greenwood Seneca Foundation, a Black and woman-run nonprofit organization with the mission of supporting Black people to reconnect to sites of history with more joy and honor.
DaShawn Lewis
DaShawn Lewis, a self-taught photographer, focuses his work on life happenings and promoting youth arts. Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, his passion for photography traces back to his childhood. When making images, he prioritizes building community and fostering connections. Lewis uses the term “Life Photography,” which aims to authentically document real-life events, people, and environments.
Betsy Phillips
Betsy Phillips is the author of Dynamite Nashville: Unmasking the FBI, the KKK, and the Bombers beyond their Control (Nashville, Third Man Books, 2024). She writes about history and politics for the Nashville Scene and is the Sales Manager and Trade Acquisitions editor for Vanderbilt University Press.
Alice Randall
Alice Randall, author and professor, is the only Black woman in history to co-write both a number one Country song and an Academy of Country Music Video of the Year. Randall earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Fisk University. She currently holds the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University, where she teaches courses in the department of African American and Diaspora Studies. She’s published five novels including The Wind Done Gone and Black Bottom Saints as well as a cookbook and children’s novel co-written with her daughter.
Dr. Edward J. Robinson
A native of East Texas, Dr. Edward J. Robinson presently serves as pulpit minister for the North Tenneha Church of Christ in Tyler, Texas. He also serves as associate professor of History and Religion at Texas College. He earned his Ph.D. in African American History from Mississippi State University in Starkville in 2003. He holds three master’s degrees, including an M.A. in Classical Greek from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. A native of Jacksonville, Texas, he attended undergraduate school at Southwestern Christian College in Terrell, Texas. He has authored several books, including: To Save My Race from Abuse: The Life of Samuel Robert Cassius (University of Alabama Press, 2007); To Lift Up My Race: The Essential Writings of Samuel Robert Cassius (University of Tennessee Press, 2008); A Godsend to His People: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Marshall Keeble (University of Tennessee Press, 2008); and Show Us How You Do It: Marshall Keeble and the Rise of Black Churches of Christ in the United States, 1914-1968 (University of Alabama Press, 2008). His most recent book is: To Pave the Way for His People: A Life of Preston Taylor (Christian Board of Publication, 2024).
Elliott Robinson
By day, Elliott shares local history in the Nashville Public Library’s world-renowned Civil Rights Room, teaching visitors from all over the globe about Nashville’s significant impact on the modern Civil Rights Movement. If you have never been, please consider visiting this beautiful, introspective space, where we keep alive the voices of those upon whose shoulders we all stand. Please reach out to schedule a FREE program for you and your family, school, job, or church: elliott.robinson@nashville.gov. By night, Elliott will probably be found on a theatre stage near you, chasing good stories around, witnessing firsthand the power and the ministry of storytelling. Stories move people; he knows from the experience of playing dramatic roles like Tory Maxson in FENCES; Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol; Hoke Coleburn in Driving Miss Daisy; and Detective Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express. He also knows how music enhances the storytelling experience: his favorite musical roles include the title role in Willy Wonka, the Musical; Mufasa in The Lion King; King Triton in The Little Mermaid, and Mister in The Color Purple. His presentation combines the art of storytelling with music, in an attempt to honor the ancestors who willingly put their lives on the line in order to create a better America for generations to come.
Soul Fire
Soul Fire Poetry Group is a departmental organization that meets once a week to hone poetry writing and performance skills, organize open mic performances, and to workshop their ideas. It features a Poet Mentor from Southern Word, who helps students craft their skills. Affiliated with Tennessee State University’s English Department, their mantra is: “We want live words of the hip world live flesh & coursing blood. Hearts Brains Souls splintering fire.” – from Black Art, Amiri Baraka. The group is led under the direction of Dr. Michelle J. Pinkard.
Dr. Learotha Williams, Jr.
Dr. Learotha Williams, Jr., Ph.D. is a scholar of African American, Civil War & Reconstruction, and Public History at Tennessee State University (TSU) in Nashville, Tennessee. At TSU, he coordinates the North Nashville Heritage Project, an effort to that seeks to encourage a greater understanding of the history of North Nashville, including but not limited to Jefferson Street and it’s historic relationship to the greater Nashville community. He is also the founding member of Past Perfect, LLC, a Nashville-based consulting firm that provides reliable and timely research and analysis for litigation, corporate genealogies, and site histories. Past Perfect also specializes in storytelling for African American-themed historic sites, public and private projects, and cultural institutions. His most recent publication is I’ll Take You There: Exploring Nashville’s Social Justice Sites (Vanderbilt University Press, 2021). He is currently co-authoring a book with Serina K. Gilbert tentatively titled, A Daughter’s Gaze: A History of Promise Land Tennessee. Dr. Williams is a native of Tallahassee, Florida, where he earned his doctorate in history from Florida State University in 2003.
Profiles
Alfred C. Galloway and Community Federal Savings and Loan
William B. Redmond (1909 – 1993)
Updates: Bass Street Community at Fort Negley Park
Underrepresented Communities History Project
The 2025 NCAAHC Planning Committee
- Co-Founder & Co-Chair Linda T. Wynn, Tennessee Historical Commission/formerly with Fisk University Department of History and Political Science
- Co-Chair Dr. Learotha Williams, Jr., Tennessee State University
- Dr. Joel Dark, Tennessee State University
- Caroline Eller, Metropolitan Historical Commission
- Dr. Elizabeth Johnson, Tennessee State University
- Gloria McKissack, Tennessee State University (ret.)
- Fletcher Moon, Tennessee State University (ret.)
- Sandra Parham, Meharry Medical College
- Jamaal B. Sheats, Fisk University
- Sharon Hull Smith, Tennessee State University
- W. Tim Walker, Executive Director, Metropolitan Historical Commission