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Talks on Vietnam and the Milford School Integration Crisis of 1954 remain the University of Delaware’s popular Land and Sea Lecture Series. Now in its 18th year the series features Friday lectures on timely topics by popular UD faculty and staff.

Free and open to the public, the lectures take place at 10 a.m. in Lewes and again at 2 p.m. in Seaford. The talks in Lewes are held at the Virden Center, 700 Pilottown Rd., on UD’s Hugh R. Sharp Campus, and the Seaford talks are held in the auditorium of the Methodist Manor House, 1001 Middleford Rd.

The series continues on Friday, Feb 28 when Mark McLeod, UD associate professor of history, gives a brief summary of developments in Vietnam since the war and particularly, since 1986 when the country’s movement toward economic liberalization and internationalization began. He also will present a colorful slide show of photos he complied between 1992 and 2002 on the lives of ordinary people, particularly those in rural areas, who still make up the bulk of Vietnam’s population. McLeod specializes in Vietnamese history as a research field and teaches Asian and Vietnamese history.

Extension Specialist Ed Kee, whose talk “Tense Times: The Milford School Integration Crisis of 1954: Causes, Events and Consequences” was cancelled Feb. 7 due to inclement weather, will now speak on Friday, March 7. In the early fall of 1954, no one could foresee the dark days that were just ahead for this sleepy, southern Delaware community as Milford attempted to integrate its schools. Shortly after the arrival of a white demagogue, neighbor was pitted against neighbor, schools were boycotted, crosses were burned and the national media focused its attention upon the tragic events that would affect Delaware politics, policy and education for decades.

The Land and Sea Lecture Series is sponsored by the UD Office of Alumni and University Relations. For more information, call (302) 855-1620 or (302) 735-8200.

Contact: Beth Thomas, (302) 831-8749
Feb. 27, 2003