In the Name of Humanity: Human Rights Events in October

In August 2008, the Duke Human Rights Center (DHRC) became an official
affiliate of the Franklin Humanities Institute. To mark the inauguration of
this partnership, the FHI and the DHRC will present a series of public
events in October 2008. The events are cosponsored by the office of the
vice-provost for interdisciplinary studies, the Archive for Human Rights at the Duke University Libraries and
the Duke University Center for International Studies.

"IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY: ATLANTIC SLAVERY, LEOPOLD'S CONGO AND THE LEGACY
OF EARLY HUMAN RIGHTS PIONEERS"

October 5
"King Leopold's Ghost" screening

The series begins with a screening of the award-winning documentary film
King Leopold's Ghost, directed by Pippa Scott and based on the acclaimed
book by Adam Hochschild. With narration by Don Cheadle, Alfre Woodard and
James Cromwell, the film recounts the genocidal plunder of the Congo by
Belgian King Leopold II. Under his greedy reign, over 10 million people
died, a tragedy that has grim echoes today. Winner of several awards, the
film includes original footage from the Congo and Belgium as well as
archival materials. The screening will be followed by a panel featuring film
director Pippa Scott and journalist Adam Hochschild.

6:00 pm-9:00 pm
Griffith Film Theater
Free and open to the public
Parking available in the Bryan Center deck
http://map.duke.edu

October 6
Adam Hochschild, "Freeing an Empire's Slaves"

Award-winning journalist Adam Hochschild will speak about his  recent work
on the Abolitionist movement in 19th-century Great Britain. Hochschild's
most recent book is Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish
Slavery, one of the inspirations for the film "Amazing Grace." He also
authored King Leopold's Ghost, the basis for this film. A co-founder of
Mother Jones magazine, Hochschild has also written for The New Yorker,
Harper's, the New York Review of Books and The Nation. Hochschild teaches
writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California
at Berkeley.

5:00 pm-8:00 pm, with a reception following the talk
Love Auditorium (in the Levine Science Research Center,
Free and open to the public
Parking available in the Bryan Center deck

October 8
Lea Wernick Fridman in conversation with John Hope Franklin

The final event in the series returns to King Leopold's Congo to explore an
African American's remarkable role in exposing its horrors and calling the
Belgian monarch to account internationally.  Noted historian John Hope
Franklin, for whom the FHI is named, will talk with holocaust studies
scholar Lea Wernick Fridman about the life and work of George Washington
Williams, an African American writer, historian, legislator, and pioneer of
the keystone human rights concept of "crimes against humanity." Franklin is
the author of George Washington Williams: A Biography, winner of the
Clarence L. Holte Literary Prize, which traces Franklin's forty-year quest
to find information about Williams. An Associate Professor of English at
Kingsborough Community College in New York, Fridman has published many
scholarly works and a play on the Holocaust. Her current research project
focuses on Williams' "Open Letter to King Leopold."

12 noon -1:00 pm
Wednesday at the Center, Franklin 240
Free and open to the public
Lunch provided
Parking vouchers for the medical deck are available at the event

• patrick.stawski@duke.edu
• 660-5823