Hampton Negro Conference facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Hampton Negro Conference |
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1912 advertisement for the Conference in the Negro Year Book and Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro
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| 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. 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. 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."
The first Conference was held from July 21 to July 22, 1897. The conferences ranged over a variety of topics including health, agriculture, women's issues, crime, and education. 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.
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.
Writing in 1917, John Manuel Gandy characterized the Conference as "the clearing house of ideas of Negro activities" for its time.
