Gallery Talk: Don Shirley & The Real Green Book Story with Dr. Arica L. Coleman

This program is sponsored in part by the UWF John C. Pace Symposium and The Escambia County Board of County Commissioners.

About Dr Arica Coleman:

Dr. Arica L Coleman is an award winning, nationally recognized American historian whose research focuses on comparative ethnic studies and issues of racial formation and identity. Her additional research interests include indigeneity, immigration/migration, interracial relations, mixed race identity, race and gender intersections, sexuality, the politics of race and science, and popular culture.

Dr. Coleman is an evaluator of African American Programs for the Delaware Humanities Forum and a freelance contributor to Time Magazine’s History and Archives Division. She is also chair of the ALANA Committee for the Organization of American Historians which focuses on the status of African American, Latino/a American, Native American and Asian American histories and historians within the history profession. She is the 2015-2017 chairperson for ALANA’s Huggins/Quarles Award and ALANA’s committee chairperson for 2016-2018. In addition, she serves on the Critical Mixed Race Conference Planning Committee.

She has also lent her expertise on matters of race and ethnicity to the Washington Post, NPR, Indian Country Today, History News Network, L.A. Progressive, The Female View Broadcast, Native Trailblazers Blog Radio, CTV (Canada News), the Virginia General Assembly House Rules Committee, and the Atlantic Live; Her work on the Loving v. Virginia case was recently cited by The New York Times and The Root.

Her first book, That the Blood Stay Pure: African Americans, Native Americans and the Predicament of Race and Identity in Virginia, a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2014, traces the history and legacy of Virginia’s effort to maintain racial purity and the consequences of this almost four hundred year effort on African American – Native American relations and kinship bonds in the Commonwealth.

Her article “Mildred Loving: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Woman” was chosen as The 2016 Gloria Anzaldua Award Honorable Mention by the Gender and Sexuality Committee of the American Studies Association.

About the African American Heritage Society:

For over 20 years the AAHS has brought an array of artists, scholars and historians to Pensacola to celebrate African American heritage. Through quality programming, the AAHS has offered retrospective exhibits in the visual arts and humanities, performing arts programs, films, and educational lectures, all highlighting a broad spectrum of the African Americans' unique and creative contributions to American life.