Quakers and Race: Speaker Monday, January 25, Greensboro

Guilford College, where your friendly blog-keeper teaches, has a glorious history of being a stop on the Underground Railroad, but did you know that it did not integrate until well into the 1960s? Quakers (who founded Guilford and are numerous and varied in this part of North Carolina) have a mixed history regarding race and racism.

This evening, Monday, January 25, at 7:30 p.m., a distinguished and dynamic speaker will address the racial history and present racial practices of Quakers. Vanessa Julye is co-author with Donna McDaniel of the book Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African-Americans and the Myth of Racial Justice.

The lecture is at New Garden Friends Meeting, New Garden Road at Friendly Avenue, Greensboro. Conversation will follow.

Vanessa Julye is Coordinator for the Ministry on Racism for the Friends General Conference. A member of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and a graduate of Westtown School and Temple University, she travels in the ministry with a special concern for helping the Religious Society of Friends become a whole blessed community.

Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship reveals that racial segregation has been as pervasive among Friends as among others of European descent.

For more information about Vanessa Julye’s lecture and other Religious Emphasis Week activities, contact Guilford College's Friends Center at 336-316-2445.