Race, Place & Civic Genealogies Symposium @ ASU D.C.

Lois Brown is ASU Foundation Professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Arizona State University. She is a public historian and a scholar of early American and African American literature and culture whose groundbreaking research reshapes our understanding of race, class, gender, faith, and place in America.  As director of the ASU Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, Brown oversees the only entity at ASU and in the state of Arizona that positions race and democracy in direct relation with each other.   She is the author of "Black Daughter of the Revolution: A Literary Biography of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins," "Memoir of James Jackson, The Attentive and Obedient Scholar" and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Literary Renaissance.  Her current projects include biographies of influential but understudied African American women of the nineteenth century, African Americans in 18th and 19th century Concord, Massachusetts and a collection of essays on race, place and history in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Arizona.  She was featured on the acclaimed PBS documentary The Abolitionists, has curated and collaborated on exhibitions for the Museum of African American History in Boston and the Boston Public Library, and was a primary consultant on the 2023 Emmy Award-winning Arizona PBS series “Black in Arizona.”

Carole Coles Henry is a strong advocate and champion for human and civil rights. Her life’s work is varied and she has served as a public administrator, educator, social worker, human rights worker, policy maker, executive and community volunteer. She retired from the City of Phoenix in 2007 after serving 27 years in a variety of executive, middle manager, and supervisory positions. Her experiences as Interim Deputy City Manager, Equal Opportunity Director, Assistant Equal Opportunity and Lead Deputy Equal Opportunity Director, Youth Programs Administrator, and, Youth Center Director afforded her the opportunity to provide leadership in a variety of civil rights, equal opportunity, Affirmative Action, human relations and resources, business and economic development, diversity, equal justice, youth, disability and women’s programs. 

Carole was responsible for the administration and application of the mission and objectives of the City’s comprehensive equal opportunity and affirmative action programs. She carried out the City’s programs and policies that prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and construction contracting & procurement, including the investigation of in-house and external discrimination complaints. As Equal Opportunity Director she administered the department’s $3.9 million budget, conducted strategic planning and action plan development, supervised and evaluated a staff of 39. She planned, directed, evaluated and administered citywide M/W/S/DBE contract compliance and enforcement of the City’s Anti- Discrimination Ordinance, and community relations.  Carole also administered the City’s Minority, Women, Small, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise programs. She lead the City’s 2nd and 3rd Generation Disparity Studies and resulting administrative policies and programs. The result was significant opportunities for local firms in construction contracting and procurement with the City of Phoenix.  Carole has served on a variety of local, state and national boards including the National Association of Human Rights Workers, Coalition for Juvenile Justice, Central Arizona Chapter of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, the Arizona Supreme Court Commission on Minorities and the Arizona Equity Analysis in State Contracting and Juvenile Justice Commissions.  During 2015, Carole was selected by then Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher to Co-Chair the City's Community Police Trust Initiative identifying recommendations to strengthen trust and accountability between the Phoenix Police Department and the community it serves.
 

Carole holds a Master of Social Work and Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She currently serves as Board Chair for the Arizona State University Center for The Study of Race and Democracy and is a member of the City of Phoenix South Phoenix Concerned Citizens Committee. She is the former Chair of the Arizona State University College Of Public Service and Community Solutions School Of Social Work Community Advisory Board.  She is the recipient of several local, state and national awards. In 2003, she was inducted into the Westinghouse High School Hall of Fame in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was a recipient of the 100 Black Men of Phoenix, Inc. 2003 African American Achievement Award. In 2006 she was also honored with the Maricopa County NAACP, “Civil Rights Award”, and in 2007 she received the Arizona State University West “Pioneer Award.”

In 2012, Carole was awarded the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award for Social Work Practice. In 2013 she was awarded the City of Phoenix Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Calvin C. Goode Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 the Northwest Black History Committee honored her with the Judge Jean Williams Award for Community Service. She was honored by Ebony House, Inc. in 2015 with the Onyx Pillar of Hope Award for her deliberate, obvious and valuable contribution through actions, attitude and commitment to community. In 2017 Carole was awarded the 23rd Annual YWCA Metropolitan Phoenix Tribute to Leadership Racial Justice Award. In 2023 Carole was honored by the Arizona State University Center For The Study Of Race and Democracy as a “Visionary Architect Of Change & Inspiring Champion Of Transformative Civic Engagement”.  She is a 1988 graduate of Valley Leadership Class VIII, 1998 graduate of the Arizona State University Educational Leadership Fellowship Program, and, a 1999 graduate of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators Executive Leadership Institute. She is a certified Human Rights Professional with the National Association Of Human Rights Workers. 

L’Merchie Frazier is a multi-media visual activist, visual historian, educator and poet. She uses innovative textiles to create restorative narratives for Black and Indigenous populations. She is currently the Executive Director of creative strategies for addressing social issues with art at SPOKE Art Inc.  and previously served as the Director of Education and Interpretation for the Museum of African American History for more than twenty years.  L’Merchie’s art and life engage one-life work: “Save Me From My Amnesia” interpreted as “I Remember, Reclaim, Restore, Reimagine. She has designed original, multi- disciplinary public programs, classes, teacher institutes and exhibits with the purpose of expanding America’s historical narrative for groups historically forgotten and often excluded from it. Her textile and innovative art maps spaces occupied by people searching for justice, freedom and equity; her visual stories, mirror community utilizing carefully researched primary and secondary source materials to confront the lasting impacts of slavery, property ownership, and transatlantic dislocation. Through textile integrations and sewing, her work joyously creates new textile languages for reclaiming the lives and legacies of history’s missing people. Her work marshals archival materials as literal threads linking historical petitions, speeches, letters, lawsuits, newspaper clippings and photographs.

Her artwork sits in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the White House, the Museum of Art and Design, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art which dedicated her collected work to the memory of George Floyd.

In addition to these honors, Frazier has been awarded a variety of national and international residences in Brazil, Africa, Taiwan, Costa Rica, France, and Cuba. Locally, her residencies include the City of Boston Artist in Residency with the Department Public Health, the African American Master Artists in Residency Program (AAMARP), Northeastern University Law School Artist Residency, the New England Foundation for the Arts Residency on Monuments, the Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts, Artist in Residence at the South End Technology Center @ Tent City and MIT Fab Labs. Since 2019 she has served as project advisor to the MIT Urban Studies Department project, “Hacking the Archives”. She is resident historian and artist for Castle of Our Skins, an arts organization “celebrating Black Artistry in classical music.” L’Merchie is also an active member of the nationally renowned Women of Color Quilter’s Network. She is a Boston Foundation Brother Thomas Fellow (2021).  She was awarded the 2023 Boston Celtics "Heroes Among Us" honor. Her interviews of authors for WGBH and the Boston Public Library include Claudia Rankine, Dr. Margaret Burnham, Ibram Kendi, Patrisse Cullors, Tamara Payne and other literary and visual artists. Her poetry is now published in the anthology Wheatley at 250: Black Women Poets Re-imagine the Verse of Phillis Wheatley Peters.

Her civic leadership appointments include a mayoral appointment to the City of Boston’s Task Force on Reparations and a gubernatorial appointment to the Massachusetts Art Commission. She is frequent public lecturer and media guest of area TV, print and radio networks. Her textiles and public metal commissioned work has been the subject of notable monographs and publications including Art in New England, the Boston Art Review and Forbes Magazine.

Heath most recently led Human Rights Watch (HRW)’s racial justice and reparations work as a researcher and advocate in HRW’s United States Program from 2018 to 2023. Heath has authored significant research reports and publications, including The Case for Reparations in Tulsa, Oklahoma: A Human Rights Argument, which is cited in the historic lawsuit brought under Oklahoma’s public nuisance law on behalf of the three known living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. She’s testified as an expert witness before the United States Congress and has provided testimony and commentary to state and municipal governments to advance wholistic repair. Heath’s writings and thought leadership on the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism, structural racism, and the necessity of comprehensive reparations have been widely quoted and published. Her expertise has been featured and referenced in numerous local, national, and international publications, on radio, and in documentaries and podcasts, including The Washington Post, USA Today, NBC, Reuters, NPR, CNN, PBS, ABC, The Guardian, The Independent, The Nation, Politico, Newsweek, NowThis, Blavity, Fox News, Public Radio Tulsa, The Oklahoma Eagle, among others.

Before joining Human Rights Watch, Heath worked as the Special Assistant to the Director and Counsel of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Washington DC Office and was a researcher at the Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (CRESP) at the University of Delaware examining emerging community health and education policy, with a particular focus on access to food in segregated communities. Heath is a graduate of Wesleyan University.  Heath also spends her time in her community supporting people without stable housing,

organizing against police violence, chasing sunrises and sunsets, enjoying nature, watching and playing sports, and finding joy in the struggle.

Caitlyn Hunter is an assistant professor at the College of Southern Maryland.  She is a PhD Candidate in English Literature at Duquesne University where she is focusing on African American literature, Black food studies, Black comics, and other forms of popular culture. She was the inaugural Emerging Black Writer in Residence at Chatham University (2021-2022) and is a Tin House Writing participant. Her debut book Power in the Tongue, a hybrid memoir, was published through Tolsun Books in June 2022. 

Shareé Hurts is Program Manager for Strategic Partnerships for APS working with community partners to create, collaborate and implement programs that benefit all Arizonans.  During her tenure with APS Shareé has worked in corporate communications, corporate events, marketing, and corporate communications.  In addition to APS, Shareé spent ten years in the healthcare industry, focused on Medicaid where she specialized in project management, proposal development, and organizational governance.  Shareé is a community advocate, educator, and a storyteller.  In addition to her career in the corporate sector, Shareé began teaching as an adjunct faculty member at South Mountain Community College within the Storytelling Institute in 2019.   

Shareé serves as board chair for FIBCO Family Services, is a board member for Earn to Learn and is a member of the National Coalition of 1oo Black Women, Phoenix Metro Chapter.  A native of the California Bay Area before calling Phoenix home, Shareé enjoys traveling with her two children and spending time with family and friends. Shareé has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Arizona state University West and a Master’s Degree in Law from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, ASU.

Joseph McGill, Jr. is the founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, a history consultant for Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, SC and author of Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed The Footprints of Slavery. By arranging for people to sleep in extant slave dwellings, the Slave Dwelling Project has brought much needed attention to these often-neglected structures that are vitally important to the American built environment.

Mr. McGill has conducted over 250 overnights in approximately 150 different sites in 25 states and the District of Columbia. He has interacted with the descendants of both the enslaved communities and of the enslavers associated with antebellum historic sites. He speaks with school children and college students, with historical societies, community groups, and members of the public.

Mr. McGill served as the Executive Director of the African American Museum located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and is the former Director of History and Culture at Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Penn School was the first school built during the Civil War for the education of recently freed slaves.

Michele Neptune McHenry is the wife of Phoenix native, the late Joseph H. McHenry.  Michele graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in psychology then went on to earn her master's in social work from Portland State University.  Michele's career as a mental health professional spans over 35 years mostly in the healthcare industry supporting healthcare workers. 

Joseph McHenry was the first African American graduate of Brophy College Preparatory in 1961.  His paternal family migrated to Clifton, AZ from Texas in 1901 and his maternal family migrated to Morenci, AZ from Oklahoma during the 1920's.  Joseph and Michele embarked on their genealogical research path after Joseph was diagnosed with his second bout of cancer and the couple moved to Arizona from Oregon in 2011.  One of the family mysteries they uncovered was Joseph's Aunt Stella McHenry.  Estella McHenry's college graduation picture led Michele to learn Stella was the first African American female graduate of Tempe Teacher's College. This pioneer family sent four of their children to what is now ASU between 1923-1936.  Consuelo McHenry, Estella's sister, was one of the reporters for The Arizona Gleam newspaper based in Phoenix and founded by Mrs. Ayra Hackett.  

Joseph went to St. Mathews parish school, attended Brophy College Preparatory, attended ASU and joined the US Army.  He was a graduate of Portland State University and taught high school in Portland Oregon for many years.  Joseph followed in the path of elders on both sides of his family who chose to join the military and serve in combat.  He achieved his dream of becoming a pilot through his military training and served as an US Army helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War.  He provided our country with 22 years of military service.  Out of the more than 40,000 helicopter pilots who served in Vietnam, less than 2% were African American.  Joseph's commitment to his community and his country, coupled with his personal mission to protect his family, led him to persevere through the many national challenges of the era of the 1960s and 1970s and through the grip of combat related PTSD.

Michele Neptune McHenry is on a mission to ensure the incomprehensible sacrifices, breathtaking stories and valorous achievements of Joseph and the other African American helicopter pilots of the Vietnam War will have their own renowned pillar in our American Military history and American Aviation history.  Michele continues to work with ASU teams to determine the full scope of the McHenry family's experience at ASU, particularly the trailblazing role of Estella McHenry.  

Karen Newton Cole is the Executive Director of Neighborhood Legal Services Program (NLSP) of the District of Columbia. She has served as NLSP’s chief executive since July 2017. Under her leadership, NLSP has expanded its SE presence – opening a neighborhood law office with attorneys from 3 practice areas and launched a new practice, the Economic Security Unit. In 2018, Ms. Newton Cole initiated NLSP’s Community Share Sessions to obtain input from NLSP clients and DC communities. In 2018, Ms. Newton Cole received the Advocate for Justice Award from the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. Currently, Ms. Newton Cole serves as the Co-Chair of the DC Consortium of Legal Services Providers. 

Prior to joining NLSP, Ms. Newton Cole was a member of the Senior Executive Service with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for almost 20 years. While at HUD, she served in several key leadership roles including as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Troubled Agency Recovery in the Office of Public and Indian Housing, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations and Management in the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, the Director of the Office of Receivership Oversight, the Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer and the Director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization.  Ms. Newton Cole began her legal career at NLSP as a Staff Attorney and then became the Managing Attorney of the lower northwest Neighborhood Law Office. She was a member (partner) at the law firm Reno & Cavanaugh, PLLC, a public interest law firm that specialized in representing non-profit organizations with particular emphasis on housing related matters. Her practice included legislative advocacy on public and Indian housing issues, representation of local cooperatives and low-income tenant organizations, and litigation in the areas of housing and employment law. 

Ms. Newton Cole graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and received her Juris Doctor from Antioch School of Law. She is a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, District of Columbia Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (inactive). In 2007, Ms. Newton Cole was awarded a Master of Science in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University and is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.

Tijuani Phelps Jackson attended the University of Pittsburgh obtaining her BA in Speech Communication and M.Ed. in Counselor Education. She attended Duquesne University completing a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies for School Counselor Certification K-12. She is currently a second-year Ph.D. student in Community Engagement at Point Park University and her dissertation will concentrate on the benefit of travel for Black girls for future success. 

She retired as a K-8 school counselor in the Pittsburgh Public School System.  Tijuani formerly served in a newly formulated position with the Girl Scouts of Western Pennsylvania as Community Extension Coordinator working within the Council and the community to increase volunteer recruitment and United Way fundraising efforts.  Before joining the Girl Scouts,  she retired from Allstate Insurance Company as an owner/sales agent. While in each position, she received recognition and awards for implementing innovative programs with a high regard for customer service and satisfaction at the forefront.  At this time, Tijuani is concentrating on obtaining her terminal degree to serve further and impact the community in which she resides.

Through the years, Tijuani gained invaluable experience utilizing interpersonal and leadership skills while facilitating community groups on grief, race, and equity. She has volunteered with various organizations including the March of Dimes, The YWCA, Girl Scouts of Greater Pittsburgh, Highmark Caring Place - Pittsburgh, the Eloise and Edith Christian School Board, and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. an international service organization. Additionally, she served as a building union representative for colleagues in her school after completing training with the Gemelia Institute in Chicago, IL. She affirms the importance and value of building relationships and uplifting those in need whenever possible. Tijuani fully embraces a quote by Shirley Chisholm that states, “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.” 

Lynda Robinson is the local enterprise and projects editor at The Washington Post. She also created and oversees The Post’s history blog, Retropolis, and has edited four books by Post writers. Robinson was part of a team of journalists who won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. She edited a series of stories on sex trafficking by Jessica Contrera that won the 2022 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics. In 2020 and 2021, she edited stories by Ian Shapira about racism, sexual assault and waterboarding at Virginia Military Institute that won a George Polk Award, Columbia University's Paul Tobenkin Award and the Education Writers Association Hechinger Grand Prize. In 2017, she worked on a series about children and gun violence by John Woodrow Cox that was a Pulitzer finalist for feature writing and won awards from Scripps Howard, the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, Columbia Journalism School and the Education Writers Association. In 2014, she was part of the team that worked on The Post’s coverage of the Navy Yard shooting, which was a Pulitzer finalist for breaking news. Robinson has edited four books, including "Children Under Fire: An American Crisis" and “Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos.” She previously worked at The Washington Post Magazine, Capital Style, Baltimore Sun, Roll Call and Bucks County Courier Times. 

Julie Zauzmer Weil is a reporter at The Washington Post. In a decade at the Post, Julie has covered topics such as religion in America, to D.C.'s city government and U.S. tax policy. Prior to joining Post, Julie volunteered as an IRS-certified tax preparer at D.C.'s Community Tax Aid, completing tax returns for low-income residents. That experience taught her how a person’s tax return can speak volumes about their life story – including how their government values their work and their wealth. Meanwhile, Julie has worked as a Local reporter for the past eight years, honing her skill at explaining the unfamiliar in accessible terms. As a religion reporter, she described the political impact of Christian theology for non-believers. On her current beat covering the D.C. government, she made sense of D.C.’s vaccine system. Most recently, Julie compiled the first comprehensive list of slaveholders in the U.S. Congress, researching the lives of 5,559 lawmakers who were born before 1840. The result was a massive interactive that inspired readers to share their own histories, including a D.C. judge who had spent years trying to unravel the mystery of why his great-grandmother – though born into slavery – had been married in the home of a U.S. senator.

Before coming to The Post, Julie worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer, her hometown paper. A graduate of Harvard University, where she majored in English, Julie also served as managing editor of the Harvard Crimson.