JANUARY 27, 2004—Rebels are nothing new at Oberlin. Student protest against injustice has been a driving force at the College since 1834, a year after its founding, when a group of abolitionists walked out of Cincinnati’s Lane Seminary and decided to move to Oberlin–provided the College would agree to open its doors to African Americans.

The Lane Rebels, as they became known, sparked a movement that not only led Oberlin College in 1835 to become the first institution of American higher education to formally open its doors to students regardless of color but also later earned the Oberlin community its reputation as "the town that started the Civil War."

This critical turning point in the history of the nation will be brought to life in Oberlin during Black History Month, when prominent historians of American abolitionism from around the country will recreate the landmark debates over slavery and African-American rights that took place at Cincinnati’s Lane Seminary and at Oberlin College in 1834-35.

Titled  "The Lane Debates: The Making of Radical Abolition and the Oberlin Commitment to Racial Egalitarianism," the symposium will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 6 and 7, at First Church in Oberlin, located at the northwest corner of Main (Rt.58) and Lorain Streets.

Beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Feb. 6, the reenactments will feature the historians dressed in period costume, among them Oberlin College President Nancy S. Dye and Oberlin faculty members Gary Kornblith and Carol Lasser, symposium coordinators. All sessions are free and open to the public.

"The goal of this reenactment is to portray the complex and fascinating history by which issues of race, education, and free speech raised in the 1830s remapped understandings of racial justice, equality, and human rights in the United States," says Kornblith.

"This reshaping eventually provided a coherent philosophy that guided antislavery activists through the Civil War," Lasser adds. "It also remained an important component of understandings of race relations, especially in the reawakened Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and in contemporary debates over multiculturalism and diversity in American society."

Detailed information about the debates is now available online, along with a link to an online study guide designed to complement the reenactment.

High School Outreach
An important part of the symposium is College outreach to area high schools. Over 300 high school students are traveling from as far as Columbus to attend the Friday session. Teaching packets developed by Oberlin College students in a related winter term project are available for classroom use.

Area teachers are invited to bring their students to the Friday session; reservations are required for school groups. For materials and reservations, please contact Jackie Fortino, phone: (440) 775-8043, e-mail:
Jackie.Fortino@oberlin.edu

In addition to President Dye and Professors Lasser and Kornblith, historians participating in the reenactment are Robert Abzug, University of Texas; Hugh Davis, Southern Connecticut State University; Douglas R. Egerton, LeMoyne College; Robert P. Forbes, Yale University; Robert Hall, Northeastern University; Scott Hancock, Gettysburg College; Peter Hinks, Hamilton College; Richard Newman, Rochester Institute of Technology; John Quist, Shippensburg University; Chandler B. Saint, Beecher House Society; John Stauffer, Harvard University; James Brewer Stewart, Macalester College; and Karl Valois, University of Connecticut.

The symposium is sponsored locally by the Oberlin African American Historical and Genealogical Group, First Church in Oberlin, Oberlin Heritage Center/OHIO, Oberlin College Archives, Oberlin College Department of African American Studies, Oberlin College Department of History, Oberlin College Library and the Friends of Oberlin College Library, Office of the President and Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Oberlin College.

The symposium is funded by Oberlin College, the Beecher House Society, the Liberty Legacy Foundation, the Ohio Humanities Council, and the University of Connecticut.

Schedule of Events
Friday, February 6
The Lane Debates Reenactment (First Church, Oberlin)
9:00 a.m. - 12:45 p.m., reenactment of arguments
12:45  - 1:45 p.m., lunch break
1:45 p.m. - 2:45 p.m., conclusion of Lane Debates
2:45 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., open discussion with historian-participants

Saturday, February 7
The Aftermath of the Lane Debates: The Oberlin Trustee Decision to Admit Students of Color and the Coming of Abolitionism (First Church, Oberlin)
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., The Oberlin Trustees' Debate
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. lunch break
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. The Aftermath: The Coming of Radical Abolitionism