Hampton Negro Conference

Hampton Negro Conference
Hampton Negro Conference
	1912 advertisement for the Conference in the Negro Year Book and Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro
Status	defunct
Genre	conference
Begins	1897
Ends	1912
Frequency	Annually
Venue	Hampton Institute
Location(s)	Hampton, Virginia, United States

The Hampton Negro Conference was a series of conferences held between 1897 and 1912 hosted by the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Hampton, Virginia.^[1] It brought together Black leaders from across the Southern United States, as well as some white participants, to promote, analyze, and advertise the progress of Black Americans.^[1] According to a description in the Institute's catalog, through the conferences "a general summary of the material and intellectual progress of the Negro race [was] obtained."^[2]

The first Conference was held from July 21 to July 22, 1897.^[3] The conferences ranged over a variety of topics including health, agriculture, women's issues, crime, and education.^[4] In preceding years there appear to have been more informal meetings of alumni at the Institute, also referred to as the Hampton Negro Conference, as seen for example in the papers of Booker T. Washington.^[5]

The 1907 trustees report of the John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen, which had directed $10,000 to the Hampton Institute in that year, stated that the conference was attended by four hundred to five hundred teachers, prominent business and professional men, and farmers.^[6]

Writing in 1917, John Manuel Gandy characterized the Conference as "the clearing house of ideas of Negro activities" for its time.^[7]

Publications

"Annual reports" and "Proceedings of" links
Year	HathiTrust link	Internet Archive link	Google Books link
1897—1st^[†]	[1]	·	[2]
1898—2nd	[3]	[4]	[5]
1899—3rd	[6]	[7]	·
1900—4th	[8]	·	[9]
1901—5th	[10]	[11]	[12]
1902—6th	[13]	[14]	[15]
1903—7th	[16]	[17]	[18]
1904—8th	[19]	·	·
1905—9th	[20]	[21]	·
1906—10th	[22]	·	·
1907—11th	[23]	·	[24]
1908—12th	[25]	[26]	[27]
1909—13th	[28]	[29]	[30]
1910—14th	[31]	[32]	[33]
1911—15th	[34]	·	[35]
1912—16th	[36]	[37]	[38]

^
† The first annual report was published as an article in The Southern Worker and Hampton School Record volume 26, number 9, September 1897, whereas the annual reports and proceedings of other years were independent publications.

References

^ ^a ^b Brooks, Clayton McClure (2017). The Uplift Generation: Cooperation across the Color Line in Early Twentieth-Century Virginia. New York: University of Virginia Press. ISBN 9780813939506. Whites also occasionally took active roles in African American organizations, such as the Negro Organization Society (NOS). Founded in 1912, the NOS was an outgrowth of the annual interracial Hampton Negro Conference, which met from 1895 to 1912 and brought together African American leaders, particularly throughout the South, for the purpose of promoting and advertising the progress of black Americans. Although the NOS's membership was entirely African American, the group made interracial support one of its primary goals.
^ The Forty-First Annual Catalogue. The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. 1909. p. 64. hdl:2027/hvd.32044083437780.
^ Wedin, Carolyn (2009). "Hampton Negro Conferences". In Finkelman, Paul (ed.). Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: from the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century. Oxford University Press. p. 359. ISBN 978-0-19-516779-5. OCLC 312624445.
^ Wedin, Carolyn (2009). "Hampton Negro Conferences". African American Studies Center (Report). Oxford African American Studies Center. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.45639. ISBN 978-0-19-530173-1.
^ Harlan, Louis Rudolph; Kaufman, Stuart B.; Smock, Raymond W., eds. (1974). "Proceedings of the Second Hampton Negro Conference". The Booker T. Washington Papers. Vol. 3. University of Illinois Press. p. 427. hdl:2027/uc1.31158001506970. ISBN 0252004108. LCCN 75186345. OCLC 787838885.
^ "School Report". Proceedings of the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen (Report). Vol. 39. New York: John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen. 1907. p. 55. hdl:2027/coo.31924093254153.
^ Gandy, John Manuel (November 1, 1917). "The Negro's Friend". The Southern Workman. Hampton Institute Press: 580. hdl:2027/hvd.32044010452860. OCLC 966722976.