Category: Lemon Project Symposium

Call for Proposals for the 16th Annual Lemon Project Spring Symposium

Call for Proposals for the 16th Annual Lemon Project Spring Symposium

Published September 3, 2025

United We Stand: Fortifying Black Communities through Courage, Dignity, and Joy

Proposals by individuals and panels of 3-4 people are welcome.

Call for Proposals

“You don’t need permission to have a revolution.” – Dr. Daniel Black, “What Would the Ancestors Say?” at the 15^th Annual Lemon Project Spring Symposium

During his keynote at our 2025 symposium, Dr. Daniel Black made a powerful call to action, urging us to unify and create a more just society for present and future generations. Dr. Black reminded us that “we are the way makers and the dream shakers.” Building and maintaining thriving communities requires the power of our imagination and commitment to collective work and responsibility. We aim to continue these conversations as we focus the theme: “United We Stand: Fortifying Black Communities through Courage, Dignity, and Joy.”

In today’s world, we must find a way to unify and amplify our voices as we face challenges. Dr. Black reminded us that we have everything necessary to continually overcome barriers, and a just future demands that we act with wisdom, courage, dignity, and joy.

The 2026 Spring Symposium will explore the following questions: How can Black people and their communities fortify themselves through cultural practices, powerful history, and collective action? How do Black communities find joy and courage amid constant challenges and dehumanization? In what ways can dignity serve as a survival mechanism for Black communities? How can universities and other institutions who are confronting slavery and its legacies continue to work towards repair and healing despite challenges?

These questions seek to stimulate conversation and explore new ideas at the symposium as we focus on fortifying Black communities through courage, dignity, and joy. We encourage participants to reflect on historical contexts, celebrate cultural strengths, and envision collaborative pathways towards sustainable empowerment and social justice.

Our symposium is multi-disciplinary and open to all. We seek proposals from people who research Black communities and are interested in themes related to courage, dignity, and joy, including but not limited to academic and descendant and/or family researchers and historians, educators, genealogists, activists, spiritual practitioners, and members of Greater Williamsburg communities and beyond. We invite a broad range of topics from people who work in the fields of American Studies, Black Studies, Anthropology, History, Public Humanities, Preservation, Oral History, STEM, among others. We also invite community organizers, activists, mental health professionals, and wellness practitioners to submit proposals in areas such as cultural production (art, poetry, music), wellness, and spirituality.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Family histories, local histories, descendant histories, and genealogical studies
Black family reunions, gathering spaces, and religious events, including homegoings, and homecomings
Black LGBTQ+ people and/or communities’
Black healers and ancestral health practices; healing through land, space, and ancestral ties
Mental and emotional health of Black communities
Black memory, community healing practices, foodways, and heritage studies
Reparations and reparative efforts by people and/or institutions
Narratives of enslaved and free Black people, focusing on stories of courage, dignity, and joy
Finding courage, dignity, and joy in the work of universities studying slavery and its legacies

The symposium has three main objectives, focusing on resilience, collaboration, and repair:

Deepen understanding of cultural and historical resilience
- Participants will explore how Black communities have historically drawn upon cultural practices, ancestral knowledge, and collective memory as a blueprint to educate and mobilize communities to make positive change.
Foster cross-disciplinary and community collaboration
- Attendees are encouraged to engage with knowledge producers across academic disciplines and community roles to promote dialogue, build networks, and create actionable strategies for community improvement.
Inspire Practices of Repair, Wellness, and Empowerment
- Symposium attendees will gain insight into reparative practices, wellness traditions, and institutional models that support the vitality of communities.

Read the submission guidelines and submit your proposals by October 10, 2025.

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The Lemon Project Featured on Local Radio—and Wins Big!

Published July 2, 2025

By Dawn Morris, The Lemon Project Administrative and Fiscal Coordinator

Dawn Morris with Best Human-Interest Series – Radio (Small Market) award

We happily share that The Lemon Project was featured on the “Making a Difference Monday” radio show, hosted by Lisa Granger on FM 93.5 The Burg and WMBG AM 740. This weekly segment spotlights nonprofit organizations making a positive impact in the Williamsburg community.

During the February 2024 interview, Lemon Project team members Dr. Jajuan Johnson and Gabrielle Pressley spoke about our mission, ongoing work, and the importance of community engagement. The conversation touched on our research, outreach, and the lasting connections we aim to build in Williamsburg and beyond.

Following the interview, Traffic Manager and Client Services Coordinator Eve Rogers submitted the segment for award consideration at the 88th Annual Virginia Association of Broadcasters’ Summer Conference. We were happy to learn that the interview had been selected as a finalist—and I was excited to attend the award ceremony.

Lisa Granger’s interview with The Lemon Project won the award for Best Human-Interest Series – Radio (Small Market)! In fact, The Burg swept nearly every category in which they were nominated!

We are grateful to Lisa Granger and the entire team at The Burg for helping share our story—and we are proud to be part of a community that values the power of dialogue, reflection, and change.

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The Local Black Histories Project Unveils New Research on a Free Black Community in York County

The Local Black Histories Project Unveils New Research on a Free Black Community in York County

Published March 8, 2023

by Dr. Jajuan Johnson, Lemon Project Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow

The Lemon Project congratulates the Village Initiative for Equity in Education, William & Mary faculty and students, and the area Black descendant communities on revealing the online exhibition “Life in the Reservation Community.” The website tells the story of an autonomous African American community in York County established before the Civil War and upended in the 1920s by eminent domain to build what is now the Naval Weapons Station.

The unveiling on Saturday, February 4, drew a crowd of over 250 Reservation descendants at William & Mary’s School of Education. The project’s first phase provides a comprehensive rendering of the people who lived on the Reservation, the complexity of freedom pre-and post-Civil War, entrepreneurship tied to the York River, and a range of primary sources on local Black church history. The project’s next phase will cover the topics: Dispossession and Protest, Resilience: Rebuilding a Legacy, and Intergenerational Trauma and Activism Today.

The Reservation history is not singular but contains numerous narratives of families in York County and connections beyond the Commonwealth of Virginia. During the Lemon Project’s 13th Annual Spring Symposium, there will be two panels on the Reservation history and its legacies: Where Do We Go From Here?: A generational discussion of The Reservation Experience; Life in the Reservation Community: Community-University Partnerships for Public Research.

The symposium themed, At the Root: Exploring Black life, History, and Culture, has three objectives:

Reflect on what is happening in African American communities and consider how these communities transform narratives.
Explore the ways that colleges and universities work with African American communities.
Contribute to strategies and best practices for institutions dealing with their involvement in slavery and its legacies.

Join us at the 2023 Lemon Project Spring Symposium to learn more about the Reservation and other public humanities projects. Participants will also discuss current topics related to Black life and culture.

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At the Root: Exploring Black Life, History, and Culture Symposium Call for Proposals

Published October 12, 2022

The Lemon Project team invites you to submit proposals for the 13th Annual Lemon Project Spring Symposium, an in-person and virtual event, that will be held on March 24-25, 2023. View the Call for Proposals below.

About The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation

Founded in 2009 by the William & Mary Board of Visitors, the Lemon Project is the second institutionally funded project of its kind in the United States. The Lemon Project is a multifaceted and dynamic attempt to rectify wrongs perpetrated against African Americans by William & Mary through action or inaction. An ongoing endeavor, The Lemon Project explores and encourages scholarship on the 330-year relationship between African Americans and William & Mary. The Lemon Project builds bridges between William & Mary and African American communities through research, programming, and supporting students, faculty, and staff.

Call for Proposals

Individual papers or panels of 3 or 4 are welcome

The first Lemon Project Spring Symposium, held in Williamsburg, Virginia in 2011, “brought together students, faculty, and community members to discuss ongoing research into our past, as well as the ways that history continues to define relationships between African Americans and the university in the present.” In that vein, we return to our roots, centering local Black histories and their vast influences.

The 2023 Spring Symposium will explore the following questions: In what ways are African American communities taking charge and telling their stories? How are colleges and universities working with local African American communities to foster belonging? What methods are communities and scholars using to tell fuller narratives of African American life, history, and culture? In what ways are researchers contributing to the emancipatory aims of Black Studies through research collaboration with Black communities?

Our symposium is multi-disciplinary and open to all. We seek proposals from people who focus on Black life, history, and culture, including but not limited to academic and descendant researchers, educators, activists, and members of Greater Williamsburg communities and beyond. We invite a broad range of topics from the fields of American Studies, Black Studies, Anthropology, History, Public Humanities, Preservation, and STEM. We also invite community organizers and activists to submit proposals in areas such as cultural production (art, poetry, music), wellness, and spirituality. We welcome submissions from people of all genders, including trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming individuals.

Please submit your proposals by November 18, 2022.

The symposium has three main objectives, focusing on the past, present, and future:

Reflect on what is happening in African American communities and consider the ways these communities are transforming narratives
Explore the ways that colleges and universities work with African American communities
Contribute to strategies and best practices for institutions dealing with their involvement in slavery and its legacies

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

African American memory and heritage studies
Community engagement and best practices
Descendant communities and their histories
Environmental history, land conservation, and displacement
Family histories, local histories, and genealogical studies
Reparations and reparative efforts
Shared Authority and transforming narratives
Universities and colleges studying slavery and its afterlives

View submission guidelines and submit your propsals here

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Join us for the 12th Annual Lemon Project Spring Symposium- The Time is Now: The Lives of Black Men Past, Present, and Future

Join us for the 12th Annual Lemon Project Spring Symposium- The Time is Now: The Lives of Black Men Past, Present, and Future

Published March 16, 2022

By Dr. Sarah Thomas, Lemon Project Associate Director

A Twitter Graphic Shared with Our Call for Proposals

The Lemon Project team is busy preparing for our upcoming Symposium—it’s less than two weeks away! This will be an in-person and virtual event and our first in-person event during the COVID era. We are looking forward to coming together around the theme, “The Time is Now: The Lives of Black Men Past, Present, and Future.” Registration is free, and we will be providing breakfast and lunch on March 25 and March 26.

Why are we focusing on the lives of Black men?

The following is excerpted from the Call for Proposals, written by Dr. Jajuan Johnson, our Mellon Postdoctoral Research Associate. “The lives of Black men are valuable. The purpose of this symposium is to center the realities of Black men past and present while imagining future possibilities. In the words of Black Male Studies scholar T. Hasan Johnson, we plan to “delve into the lives of Black males beyond stereotypes, conjecture, and opinion.”

“The symposium prompts us to pause and listen to the stories of Black men across time, age, class, region, and sexuality. Given the historical marginalization of Black males and the evident atrocities over the past decade with the violent deaths of Black men and boys, there is an urgency to lean into the humanity of Black men and imagine a future where they (we) can thrive in all realms of life.”
Dr. Jajuan Johnson, Call for Proposals, 12th Annual Lemon Project Spring Symposium

Keynotes by Tommy Curry & Kiese Laymon

Dr. Tommy Curry and Kiese Laymon are joining us in Williamsburg for keynote talks—Dr. Curry on March 25 at 6 pm ET and Mr. Laymon on March 26 at 9:00 am ET. After each of their keynotes, Dr. Curry and Mr. Laymon will be signing books, which you can purchase from the William & Mary Bookstore on site.

Plenary Session—The Time is Now: The Lives of Black Men

Dr. Daniel Black, Dr. T. Hasan Johnson, and Dr. O’Shan Gadsden will serve as panelists for the plenary session, “The Time is Now: The Lives of Black Men Past, Present, and Future,” on the morning of Friday, March 25. Dr. Jamel Donnor, of the William & Mary School of Education, will be the moderator. Dr. Jajuan Johnson notes that “the panelists bring various perspectives with backgrounds in Black Male Studies, psychology, and Africana Studies. They will present facts challenging enduring stereotypes that dehumanize Black men and boys, offer insight on present inequities, and discuss ways Black men are transforming themselves and their communities. Lastly, they will provide visions that improve the lives of Black males based on their areas of expertise.”

One of 2021’s Symposium panels, featuring students who made art to remember people enslaved by William & Mary

Future of Ethnic Studies

On March 25 at noon, the Asian Centennial and the Lemon Project join together for a panel discussion on Ethnic Studies in Virginia. During this year of celebrating the accomplishments of the first Asian students at William & Mary, we also look forward to a more inclusive future. Our panelists are Monika Gosin, Krystyn Moon (from the University of Mary Washington), Laura Guerrero, Steve Prince, and Chinua Thelwell.

Interdisciplinary and Multi-disciplinary Panels

In addition to the keynotes, plenary session, and the Ethnic Studies panel, there are 11 panels on a variety of topics given by presenters who are community members, scholars, researchers, genealogists, working professionals, and students. From folks sharing their genealogy and family histories to students sharing their summer research and discussions of Black professionals in the corporate world to cell phone videos and police violence, these panels are real, timely, and offer a roadmap of where Black males have been, where they are now, and what the future could hold.

Everyone is welcome! Registration is free, and we’re providing breakfast and lunch for in-person attendees on March 25 and March 26.

As always, everyone is welcome to attend. Please share the Symposium with your friends, family, and anyone else who might be interested in this two-day multi-disciplinary conversation about Black men past, present, and future.

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