Our series is named after Evelyn L. Barbour, who passed in 2014 at the age of 78 after a short illness. She attended the Jefferson School and was among the first graduating class Jackson P. Burley High School. She was an alumnus of Virginia Union University and the University of Virginia School of Education. She taught in various school systems and retired after more than 30 years of service. Ms. Barbour was a lifelong member of Mount Zion First African Baptist Church and her most notable work in the church was her role as historian. This series celebrates her work documenting history by creating oral histories in the form of conversation and connection.

In 2023 we will be talking about diversity, equity and inclusion work. As more organizations create and hire for their own departments, the work that was supposed to be done has been co-opted by the system it was created in. When altered by the system of supremacy it becomes “Black Face of White Power”.

In January we talk with an emerging leader in this conversation, Matthew Reynolds, who left teaching to create a tool that anyone can use to understand what equity means to them and how to live into that in the world.

In February we spoke with Dr. Avina Ross formerly with Princeton University. She and three of her colleagues in DEI exited at nearly the same time, for some of the same reasons.

In April we speak with Siri Russell, Assoc. Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Virginia’s School of Data Science.

On August 15 we will sit down with Dr. T. J. Tallie, Assoc. Professor, History Director, Africana Studies at University of San Diego. He specializes in the comparative settler colonial and imperial history, with a focus on South Africa.  His interests, broadly defined, involve colonialism, gender and racial identity, indigeneity, and religious expression.  At USD, he teaches courses in African History, Global History, Pacific History, and Gender and Sexuality.