On SLSA's latest Working History podcast, "Reconciling a Slaveholding Past," Jody Allen discusses the College of William and Mary's slaveholding past and the genesis, research, and community outreach of The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation. Listen to Working History on Spotify, iTunes, and SoundCloud, and subscribe on these platforms to keep up to date on future episodes. 

Jody Lynn Allen, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of History at William and Mary, and Director of The Lemon Project. Her research interests cover the U.S. Civil War through the Long Civil Rights Movement focusing on black agency. Her current manuscript, Roses in December: Black Life in Hanover County, Virginia During the Era of Disfranchisement, considers the consequences of and responses to the 1902 Virginia constitution revisions that disfranchised most African American males. She is working with a colleague to produce "The Green Light," a documentary film on the school desegregation case, Charles C. Green v. the School Board of New Kent County, VA. This little-known 1968 Supreme Court decision led to the integration of public schools throughout the South. She co-authored "Recovering a 'Lost' Story Using Oral History: The United States Supreme Court's Historic Green v. New Kent County, Virginia, Decision" which appeared in The Oral History Review. Her article, “Thomas Dew and the Rise of Proslavery Ideology at William & Mary” appears in the Forum on Slavery and Universities in the May 2018 edition of Slavery & Abolition. During the 2017-2018 academic year, Allen was a visiting assistant professor of history at the University of the South at Sewanee, TN, where she taught African American History and consulted with Sewanee’s Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation.

The Lemon Project is a multifaceted and dynamic attempt to rectify wrongs perpetrated against African Americans by William & Mary through action or inaction. An ongoing endeavor, this program will focus on contributing to and encouraging scholarship on the 300-year relationship between African Americans and W&M, and building bridges between the university and Williamsburg and Greater Tidewater area. The Lemon Project is a member of the Universities Studying Slavery Consortium.