Continuing the theme “Democracy in America”, the African American Heritage Society of Maury County in collaboration with the Columbia State Community College is sponsoring a Constitution Day Program “How Do We Elect our President? The Electoral College and the Popular Vote.”
The program will be on Sept. 18, at 6 p.m. in the Clement Building’s Ledbetter Auditorium at the Columbia State Community College.
This event is a part of the companion programming in support of the Smithsonian exhibit, “Voices and Votes: Democracy in America” which is currently on display at the Maury County Public Library and is funded, in part, by the Humanities Tennessee.
Since the 2024 Presidential election process is underway with the primary debates, the African American Heritage Society decided that a discussion about the “Electoral College” was timely, said Jo Ann McClellan. the Society’s president.
The program participants are:
Dr. Mark R. Cheathem, Professor of History and Editor of the Martin Van Buren Papers. A graduate of Cumberland University’s undergraduate history program, Mark R. Cheathem received his M.A. in history from Middle Tennessee State University and his Ph.D. in history from Mississippi State University.
Dr. Cheathem is the author or editor of seven books, including the award-winning “Andrew Jackson, Southerner.” His most recent book is “The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson.” Since 2015, Dr. Cheathem has been the project director and co-editor of the Papers of Martin Van Buren. Housed in Cumberland University’s Vise Library, this project is producing digital and print editions of the eighth president’s papers.
Dr. Michael P. Federici, Professor of Political Science. Dr. Federici is Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University. He served as department chair from 2017-2022. He is in his thirty-fourth year of college teaching. He received his Ph.D. in Politics from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (1990), his M.A. from CUA in 1985, and his B.S. in Economics from Elizabethtown College in 1983. Dr. Federici has published six books.
Attorney Rhonda D. Hooks. Hooksis a native Maury Countian, has been practicing law for over nineteen years in the Church, Criminal, & Juvenile Law arenas. Additionally, she has represented hundreds of churches and pastors in various capacities.
She attended Columbia State Community College, Middle Tennessee State, the University of Memphis, and the Thurgood Marshall School of Law–Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas.
In 2002, Rhonda Hooks became the first African-American female attorney admitted to the Maury County Bar from Mt. Pleasant and is currently licensed to practice in the Middle & Western Districts of the US Districts Courts.
Attorney Hooks published “Has the Electoral College Outlived Its Stay?” in the Thurgood Marshall Law Journal.
John R. Vile, Ph.D., Dean and Professor of Political Science. Dr. Vile is a graduate of the College of William and Mary who earned his Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia and attended seminars sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities at Princeton and the University of Iowa. He has served as Chair of the Department of Social Sciences at McNeese State University, as Chair of the Department of Political Science at MTSU, and as Dean of the University Honors College.
Dr. Vile is a scholar of the U.S. constitutional amending process, American historic documents, and prominent political symbols and has written and edited numerous books, essays, chapters, and reviews on this and related topics. He is also the general editor of a series of books on Landmark Congressional Legislation for Greenwood publishers.
“The Columbia State History Department is excited to partner with the African American Heritage Society of Maury County on this year’s Constitution Day program. The topic is important, and the panelists are outstanding in their fields. Anyone interested in how we elect our President will want to attend this program” said Barry Gidcomb, Professor of History and Dean of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division at Columbia State Community College.