Upper School
We are thrilled to be celebrating the 23rd year of the Tower Hill Forum!
In this election year, we are taking a deeper look at the democratic political system. We are excited to welcome Tamara Keith in a discussion of Election 2020 and to share her expertise. Later in the year, Dr. Martha Jones will address the history of disenfranchisement in the United States in regard to race. We welcome the entire Tower Hill community to hear from these two leaders in their field.
The Forum was established in 1998 by the Rappolt family in honor of their children Gabrielle ‘93, Sarah ‘96 and Bill ‘99, and in recognition of the dedication, scholarship and professionalism of the Tower Hill faculty. The Tower Hill community thanks the Rappolts for the legacy of remarkable speakers over two decades.
Tara Malloy Fletcher, History Department Chair
Bessie Speers, Head of School
Each year since its inception in 1998, the Forum has brought experts and scholars to Tower Hill to speak to students about themes related to history, citizenship and international affairs. Among the speakers have been George Will, Stephen Ambrose, Gwen Ifill, Elie Wiesel, David Gergen, Joe Biden, Congressman John Lewis and Niall Ferguson.
Click here for Past Forums.
Click here for Past Forums.
2020-2021 – The Voice of the People: The Power of Citizenship and Voting
Tamara Keith
Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020
Tamara Keith is an NPR White House correspondent and co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast, the most listened-to podcast during the 2016 presidential campaign, where she covered Hillary Clinton. Keith is also a member of the “Politics Monday” team on PBS NewsHour, providing regular analysis, commentary and well-honed insights on President Trump, Congress and the inner-workings of Washington politics.Now one of NPR’s top journalists, Keith began contributing essays to Morning Edition when she was 15 and worked through college at NPR member station KQED. After becoming the youngest graduate of the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, she worked for a string of member stations before joining NPR as a business reporter in 2009. The following year, Keith was on the ground covering the earthquake in Haiti and the oil spill in the Gulf. In 2011, she conceived and solely reported The Road Back to Work, a year-long series featuring the audio diaries of six unemployed St. Louis residents. She also became a NPR Congressional correspondent, emphasizing coverage of House Republicans, the budget, taxes and fiscal fights. Keith is also known for B-Side Radio, the long-time public radio show and podcast that she co-founded, produced, hosted, edited and distributed for nine years.
Martha Jones
Professor Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University. She is a legal and cultural historian whose work examines how Black Americans have shaped the story of American democracy. Jones is the author of Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America (2018), winner of the OAH Liberty Legacy Award for the best book in civil rights history, the American Historical Association Littleton-Griswold Prize for the best book in American legal history, and the American Society for Legal History John Phillip Reid book award for the best book in Anglo-American legal history. Forthcoming in 2020 is Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Fought for Rights for All. Jones is also author of All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture 1830-1900 (2007) and a coeditor of Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women (2015), together with many important articles and essay.
Today, she is at work on a biography of US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney. Jones is recognized as a public historian, frequently writing for broader audiences at outlets including The Washington Post, The Atlantic, USA Today, Public Books, the Chronicle of Higher Education and Time, the curatorship of museum exhibitions including “Reframing the Color Line” and “Proclaiming Emancipation” in conjunction with the William L. Clements Library, and collaborations with the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the Charles Wright Museum of African American History, the American Experience, the Southern Poverty Law Center, PBS, Netflix and Arte (France.)
Jones is an OAH Distinguished Lecturer.
Jones is an OAH Distinguished Lecturer.
