Professor Steve Haynes (Religious Studies)
Fridays, 3:00-4:30 p.m. August 22, 29; September 5, 19, 26; October 3, 17, 24, 31; November 14
In-Person (Dorothy C. King Hall, except where otherwise noted), $10 per session
This 10-week series provides an overview of the ways Rhodes has influenced, and been influenced by, Memphis and the Mid-South. This lifelong learning course will run concurrently with the undergraduate Humanities class “Rhodes in Memphis: 1925-2025,” (HUM 240). This collaboration offers a rare opportunity for deep and sustained intergenerational learning as Meeman students and current Rhodes students learn with and from one another. Topics covered will include the move from Clarksville to Memphis, the legacy of the Old South on campus, the Diehl Heresy Affair and competing visions of a “Christian College,” the College’s relationship to Memphis arts, College and the natural environment, integration and the Black experience on campus, campus activism and the Sanitation Workers Strike, the College’s long history of community engagement, and its contributions to local education and non-profits. Register for as many sessions as your schedule allows.
Class size: maximum 20, unless otherwise noted.
August 22. The Move from Clarksville to Memphis: What they Left; What They Brought; What they Found
This class will examine the College’s move to Memphis in 1925 with a focus on the legal and financial hurdles involved in leaving Clarksville, the process of physical relocation, the acquisition of land in Memphis, and the ways the institution was welcomed and supported by the city’s citizens.
August 29. What’s in a Name? Southwestern and the Old South Legacy
This class will consider the ways the College brought Old South memories to Memphis by honoring Confederate heroes such as Nathan B. Forrest, Alfred A. Robb, John N. Waddel, and William A. Forbes and prophets of the Lost Cause such as Benjamin M. Palmer. We’ll also review the campaign to change the name of Palmer Hall and the project to “locate slavery’s legacies” on campus.
September 5. Who Defines “Church College”? The Synods and the Diehl Heresy Affair
This class will explore the tensions between the Presbyterian Synods that indirectly governed Southwestern and President Charles Diehl, who in 1931 was accused by local ministers of being “unsound in the faith.” We’ll examine the charges brought against Diehl, the pamphlet war they provoked, the ensuing hearing before the Board of Directors, the heresy trial in the Presbytery of Nashville, and the lingering conflict between Southwestern and the Synod of Mississippi.
September 19. The College and the Arts in Memphis, Part 1: Literature and Music
This class will survey the literary and musical dimensions of the College’s years in Memphis, including the legacies of writers such as Peter Taylor, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, and Charlaine Harris, the merging of Southwestern with the Memphis College of Music under Burnet “Papa” Tuthill, the Southwestern Singers, and recent curricular and programmatic expressions of the College’s connection to Memphis music.
September 26. The College and the Arts in Memphis, Part 2: Visual Art and Theatre
This class will survey the College’s connections with the local art and theatre communities. In the first case, we will focus on artists and collectors Floy and Etta Hansen, Jesse Clough, Carroll Cloar, and Lon Anthony, and programs such as the Center for Outreach in the Development of the Arts (CODA). Our exploration of the College’s theatrical history will encompass Tennessee Williams, the inception of Circuit/Playhouse on the Square, and the McCoy Theater's landmark production of Nicholas Nickleby, which made national news.
October 3. The College and the Natural Environment
This class will consider the College’s connection with the natural environment in Memphis, focusing on Overton Park and the campaign to protect it from destruction by Interstate 40 in the 1950s and 60s, the Rhodes College Arboretum, environmental programs such as Wolf River field trips, and archeological projects at Zion Christian Cemetery and Ames Plantation.
October 17: The College, Integration, and the Black Experience
This class will review the long path toward the College’s integration in 1964, the story of African Americans on campus since that time, and the institution’s complicated relationship with Memphis’ Black community.
October 24. The College, Civil Rights Activism, and the Sanitation Workers Strike
This class will trace the gradual awakening of the campus to Civil Rights in the early 60s, the leading role taken by students in the nationally publicized church kneel-in campaign of 1964, the various ways College faculty, staff, students, and alumni/ae were involved in the Sanitation Workers Strike of 1968, and Rhodes’ role in MLK 50, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in Memphis. This special Homecoming Weekend class, with seats for up to 150 alumni and lifelong learners, will be held in Blount Auditorium (Buckman Hall).
Class size: maximum of 150.
October 31. The College and Community Engagement
This class will survey the long history of community engagement at the College, highlighting the Evening College and Adult Education programs, the Institute of Executive Leadership, the “Dilemma” events of the 1960s and 70s, the Kinney Program, Bonner and Day Scholars, Habitat for Humanity, the Hollywood Springdale Partnership, the Learning Corridor, the Crossroads to Freedom oral history project, student research conducted under the auspices of the Rhodes Institute of Regional Studies, and the Turley Memphis Center for Community Engagement.
November 14. The College, Local Education, and Non-Profits
This class will look at the contributions of Rhodes students and faculty to local schools and community organizations, with special attention to non-profits started and/or led by Rhodes alums, including MIFA, Hope House, Just City, and Thistle & Bee.