Association for the Study of African American Life and History Holds 97th Annual Convention Downtown Sept. 26-30

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) will hold its 97th annual convention, titled Black Women in American History and Culture, Downtown Sept. 26-30.

The University of Pittsburgh is one of the event’s sponsors and Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg is a member of the convention’s Honorary Committee.

The gathering at the Westin Convention Center Hotel, 1000 Penn Ave., will explore Black women’s roles in—and contributions to—the making of the nation. From Harriet Tubman, who led the Underground Railroad, and Rosa Parks, the mother of the modern civil rights movement, to contemporary novelist Toni Morrison and poet and author Rita Dove, “African American women have been the core of organized Black life, but their strivings have often escaped the gaze of the public and hence, their history is too little known,” according to the convention’s brochure.

ASALH was founded in 1915 by noted educator, historian, and civil rights leader Carter G. Woodson—the father of Black History Month—to further the understanding of African American life and culture.