Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 8/23/00
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   18

Editors: Photo accompanies release   Please note local interest
SLU SPONSORS SYMPOSIUM ON FLORIDA PARISHES, SEPT. 14-15
     HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University's Center for Southeast Louisiana
Studies will spotlight the unique culture and  history of the Florida Parishes in a two-day
symposium, Thursday and Friday, September 14-15, at the university's War Memorial Student
Union.
     The symposium, "Louisiana's Florida Parishes: Continuity and Change, 1699-2000,"
"promises to be the most intensive study of our home region ever conducted," said Samuel C.
Hyde Jr., the center's director. The symposium will feature regional, national and international
scholars, exhibits, folk-life demonstrations, and musical performances, including the Piney
Woods Opry Roadshow.
     "The eight modern parishes of Tangipahoa, Washington, St. Tammany, St. Helena,
Livingston, East Baton Rouge, West Feliciana and East Feliciana maintain a distinct regional
identity linked by geography and a common history," Hyde said. "Despite a rich cultural
heritage,
only a few historians and academics have studied the region. This will be the first-ever gathering
that focuses scholarly attention on southeast Louisiana's curious and colorful history."  
     Hodding Carter III, president and chief executive officer of the John S. and James I.
Knight Foundation and former press secretary to President Jimmy Carter, will give the keynote
lecture, titled "Reflections on a Rooted Life," at 6 p.m., Friday, in the Student Union Theatre.
Carter's family has roots in Hammond where his father, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Hodding Carter, ran a daily newspaper in the early 1930s.
     The symposium is part of Southeastern's 75th Anniversary celebration. All events are free
and open to scholars, teachers, students and the general public.
     Hyde said the symposium's special features will include the Piney Woods Opry
Roadshow's celebration of the traditional music of the Florida Parishes at 6 p.m. on Thursday in
the Student Union Theatre. Throughout the campus on Friday, the public can view folk-life 
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FLORIDA PARISHES SYMPOSIUM   Add One
demonstrations designed to recreate life in the Florida Parishes during the past two decades. 
Demonstrations will include Choctaw Indian cane basketry, mule-team plowing and hauling,
black smithing, cane syrup making, brown cotton spinning and weaving, traditional quilting,
Civil War artillery drills and cannon firing, Scotch-Irish bagpiping, African drumming, and
Hungarian folk dancing. 
     Hyde, the author of the book "Pistols and Politics: The Dilemma of Democracy in
Louisiana's Florida Parishes" and "Plain Folk of the South Revisited," is among the dozen
internationally renowned presenters who will discuss topics such as land speculation and town
planning during England's rule of the parishes; slavery under the Spanish regime, antebellum
building traditions, African American workers at the turn of the century, Washington Parish's
black community, the parishes' economy and quality of life, and the history of the parishes'
legendary longleaf pine forests. Presenters include Robin F.A. Fable of Auburn University,
Gilbert C. Din, Professor Emeritus of Fort Lewis College, and Adam Fairclough of the
University of East Anglia.
     On Thursday evening, the Piney Woods Opry Roadshow will present a celebration of the
traditional music of the Florida Parishes at 6 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre. The performance
will be followed by a reception. An exhibit and reception on Folk-life of the Florida Parishes is
scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Friday evening, at the Hammond Regional Arts Center's Levy Building,
217 E. Thomas. An exhibit on "Louisiana's Florida Parishes: Our Place in History" will be on
display in the Center, located on the second floor of Sims Memorial Library, while the Student
Union annex will host the center's premier exhibit, "Piney Woods People: Pioneers on the
Lumber Frontier of Southeast Louisiana."
     Hyde said the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies is the new name of Southeastern's
20-year-old Center for Regional Studies. The recent change "reflects our effort to more
accurately describe the center's mission, which is to preserve and promote the history and the
cultures of Louisiana's Florida Parishes, southwestern Mississippi and surrounding areas through
scholarly research, lectures, and publishing," Hyde said. "Since the Florida Parishes is our
primary focus area, we're excited about this opportunity to highlight its unique history and
culture."
     For additional information about the symposium, call the center at 504-549-2151.
Information is also available online at www.selu.edu/Academics/Depts/RegionalStudies.
                             -SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu./NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsm00.htm