ISRE Third Annual Spring Symposium

BREATHING DEMOCRACY INTO SPACES
April 25 & 26th, 2025

This year’s theme is “Her Mark: Women’s Voices During Reconstruction”.

Women, in various roles, are key figures in the history of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent (33rd US Colored Troops), the first regiment of Black Soldiers deployed in a combat role during the Civil War. The 2025 symposium will celebrate the many women associated with the 1st South Carolina VAD as well as the impact made by women throughout South Carolina during the Reconstruction Era.

REGISTER NOW: https://2025USCBSpringSymposium.eventbrite.com

Registration Note – You can select either Friday Evening or Saturday, once you do you will be given a further option to select “General Admission for Both Days”. Please make sure to select this if you will be attending both days! Thank you.

2025 SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

All events are FREE and open to the public!
Morning coffee, refreshments and lunch are included on Saturday.

FRIDAY, April 25th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Join us for our Opening Reception featuring a performance by students from Beaufort’s Robert Smalls Leadership Academy.

Keynote Address by Dr. Hermina Glass-Hill, Founder and Director of the Susie King Taylor Women’s Institute and Ecology Center on “My Unbounded Joy: Susie King Taylor and the War of Jubilee.”

SATURDAY, April 26th, 9:00 am – 3:30 pm, doors open 8:30 am

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Nathan Betcher, Historian
Reconstruction Era National Historic Park
“The Elizabeth Hyde Botume Collection”

Samantha Mischke, Ranger
Reconstruction Era National Historic Park
“Poetic Echoes of the Reconstruction Era: Ellen Murray’s Reflections”

Jennifer Marler
University of South Carolina
“Esther Hill Hawks: Doctor, Educator, Abolitionist”

Elizabeth Laney
Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era
“Women’s Voices in the US Colored Troop Pension Records”

Jane Ball-Groom, Julia Groom & Stacey Bell
USCT Descendants
“Inherited Strength: The Enduring Echoes of Women’s Legacies”

SPECIAL GUESTS

Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, US Army Retired
Lt. Col. Rory McGovern, US Army
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War
Linda Robinson, Women’s Relief Corp
Dr. Robert Adams, Exec. Director Historic Penn Center
Mrs. Alvesta Roberson, Mather School Alumnus
Bradley Tarrance, Principal, Robert Smalls Leadership Academy
Dawn Chitty, African American Civil War Monument & Museum
Dr. Najmah Thomas, Ass. Professor, USC Beaufort

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!!

Presented by USC Beaufort’s Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era. Sponsored by a grant from the McCausland Innovation Fund from the College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina (Columbia), with support from the Dick & Sharon Stewart Foundation and the Ernest A. Finney Cultural Arts Center.