The African-American Heritage House (AAHH) is an organization informed by the African American Experience, committed to strengthening Chautauqua by encouraging and welcoming diversity, fostering honest conversations, and adding new voices to the programmatic mix. The AAHH is proud to bring quality programming with unique perspectives to the Chautauqua Institution.

Our 2025 Summer Speakers!

The African American Heritage House is thrilled to announce yet one more set of impressive speakers for its 2025 summer season. Each speaker will bring new perspectives and insights to our attendees as each speaker takes on exciting topics for this exceptional year. Please prioritize coming out to see them speak during the Chautauqua Institute summer season (June 21- August 24, 2025) at the Hall of Philosophy, every Wednesday at 3:30 pm.

Week 1: Bivian ‘Sonny’ Lee III, Founder and CEO of Son of a Saint, a New Orleans organization that provides mentorship and opportunities to young boys who have lost their fathers. Inspired by the loss of his own father, an NFL defensive back for the New Orleans Saints, Sonny has established a successful organization that serves over 350 boys annually.

Week 2: Dr. Julia Robinson Moore, Associate Professor of Religion and an Affiliate Faculty member in the Department of Africana Studies & History at UNC Charlotte. She is also the principal director of The Preserving Sacred Spaces Initiative (PSSI). Her most recent book, Race, Religion, and the Pulpit: Reverend Robert L. Bradby and the Making of Urban Detroit (2015 and republished in 2024), explores the history of the first Black Baptist Church in Detroit and its partnership with influential figures like Henry Ford and Clarence Darrow during the Great Migration.

Week 3: Dr. Raymond O. Arsenault, back by popular demand, is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History and Chairman of the Department of History and Politics at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. He is an esteemed expert in the political, social, environmental, and civil rights history of the American South.

Week 4: Dr. Christopher Cameron, Professor of History at UNC Chapel Hill is currently writing a book entitled Liberal Religion and Race in America, focused on the role and history African Americans have played in religious liberalism. He previously published To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and The Making of the Antislavery Movement and Black Freethinking: A History of African American Secularism.

Week 5: Dr. Spencer Crew, Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History at George Mason University and Emeritus Director of the National Museum of African American History and the National Museum of American History. Previously, he served as the president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and spent twenty years at the Smithsonian Institution.

Week 6: Paige Alexander, CEO of The Carter Center. Alexander has a distinguished global development career, with over two decades of experience spanning the government and nonprofit sectors. She has held senior leadership positions at two regional bureaus of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Week 7: Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, President and CEO for the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), bringing 21 years of experience in healthcare, diversity, equity, and inclusion, government affairs, and executive leadership. She is the founding principal and CEO of R.E.A.C.H. Beyond Solutions, a public health, advocacy, and leadership firm.

Week 8: Asha Castleberry-Hernandez, Adjunct Fellow at the American Security Project. Castleberry has over a decade of experience working as a Middle East Policy Expert in the public and private sectors, including serving the Biden-Harris Administration as a Senior Advisor (Senior Executive Service) in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (Middle East Policy) in the U.S. State Department.

Week 9: Sheffield Hale, President and CEO, Atlanta History Center. Hale maintains the 175,000 sq. foot museum because of his dedication and enthusiasm to preserve and explore Atlanta’s history. Under Hale’s leadership, the center has led the Confederate Monument Initiative, providing historical information and tools to communities addressing the role of Confederate-focused monuments.

A Special Message from the President

To all the Friends and Supporters of the African American Heritage House at Chautauqua (“AAHH”)

It’s with gratitude for a life incredibly well-lived, and with sadness at the loss of a giant, that I write to tell you of the death of our friend, leader, and colleague, Joan Brown Campbell.  Joan passed peacefully – in fact, her daughter Jane described it as “serenely” – on Saturday, March 29.

 Joan was a force of nature in all facets of her life.  She was a long-time leader of the quest for racial justice, helping Clevelanders elect the first black mayor of a major American city, the Honorable Carl Stokes, in 1967. She was also dedicated to ecumenical interfaith work. When Joan was 49, she was ordained by the National Baptist Church, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s denomination. Soon after, the Disciples of Christ recognized her ordination. Joan subsequently became the first woman to serve as the executive director of the US office of the World Council of Churches. She was the first ordained woman to serve as the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. She was also the first woman to serve as the director of religion at the Chautauqua Institution, and in that role was one of the founding visionaries of the AAHH. It’s not a stretch at all to say that, but for Joan’s inspiration, advocacy and commitment, the AAHH would not exist.

While Joan’s heart was firmly in Chautauqua, working tirelessly to make it more inviting, more welcoming, and more inclusive, her energies and vision were global.  She led a delegation to meet with Pope John Paul II, presenting him with a copy of New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. She was part of the delegation led by President Bill Clinton to attend the funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel. Along with her friend, Reverend Jesse Jackson, she traveled to Belgrade during the Balkan wars and negotiated the release of imprisoned American soldiers. She and Carl Sagan, the renowned astronomer, helped cofound the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. She served as an election observer when Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black president of South Africa. She was the only woman in the procession of over 200 clergy at the enthronement of Desmond Tutu as the archbishop of the Anglican Church in South Africa. Archbishop Tutu later called Joan “a woman of courage and compassion,” adding that “she helped put an end to the evil of apartheid.”

Joan lived a life that was, to quote her well-known phrasing, “rich and full.”  And, indeed, our lives are richer and fuller as a result of her passion and ministry.  Fittingly, Joan’s family has requested that, in lieu of flowers or gifts, her mourners direct their generosity to two places – a Geriatric Medicine endowment through the MetroHealth Foundation named in honor of her son,  Dr. James W Campbell, and the AAHH.  In that way, and in so many others, Joan’s life will continue to be a blessing to the ongoing work of the AAHH.

We all pass away twice. Once when we physically expire, and a second time when friends and history forget about us. The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell will pass away only once.

In Faith,

Erroll Davis

President,

African American Heritage House (AAHH)