The Association.

The seventieth meeting of the Southern Historical Association will be held on November 3-6, 2004, at the Marriott Downtown in Memphis. The meeting will begin on Wednesday night and run through Saturday afternoon.

At the close of the sixty-ninth meeting in Houston, on November 9, 2003, Wayne Flynt of Auburn University succeeded Darlene Clark Hine of Michigan State University as president. Since there were no additional nominations, those proposed by last year's Nominating Committee and published in the May 2003 issue of the Journal were declared elected:

VICE PRESIDENT: Charles W. Joyner, Coastal Carolina University

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, for three-year terms expiring in 2006: Sylvia R. Frey, Tulane University Raymond Gavins, Duke University Michael O'Brien, Cambridge University

At its meeting on November 6, 2003, the Executive Council approved the nominations of Jacqueline Jones of Brandeis University and Peter Wallenstein of Virginia Tech for four-year terms on the Board of Editors of the Journal of Southern History.

The Executive Council elected the following to serve as the Nominating Committee for 2004: Thavolia Glymph, Duke University, chair; Laura F. Edwards, Duke University; Michael Honey, University of Washington, Tacoma; J. William Harris, University of New Hampshire; and Ted Ownby, University of Mississippi.

OWSLEY AWARD

The Frank L. and Harriet C. Owsley Award for a distinguished book in southern history published in 2002 was presented to Sharla M. Fett of Occidental College for Working Cures: Healing, Health, and Power on Southern Slave Plantations, published in 2002 by the University of North Carolina Press. The award carries a stipend of $1,000. The award committee consisted of Earl Lewis, University of Michigan, chair; Sylvia R. Frey, Tulane University; and Landon R. Y. Storrs, University of Houston.

SIMKINS AWARD

The Francis B. Simkins Award for a distinguished first book in southern history published in 2001 of 2002 was presented to Brian Kelly for his book, Race, Class, and Power in the Alabama Coalfields, 1908-21, published in 2001 by the University of Illinois Press. The award carries a stipend of $1,000. The prize committee consisted of Laura F. Edwards, chair; Eric Arnesen, University of Illinois, Chicago; and Philip D. Morgan, Johns Hopkins University.

WOODWARD DISSERTATION PRIZE

The second recipient of the C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize, presented this year for the best dissertation in southern history completed and defended in 2002, was won by Chandra M. Manning of Pacific Lutheran University for her dissertation "When the Cruel War Was Over: Why Union and Confederate Soldiers Thought They Were Fighting the Civil War," produced at Harvard University under the direction of the late William E. Gienapp. A stipend of $4,000 is drawn from the Woodward Fund, established with a generous bequest left to the SHA by Professor Woodward upon his death in 2001.

The committee also recognized three finalists among the twenty-four dissertations submitted for consideration. They were: Sarah Harper Case, "Renegotiating Race and Responsibility in the Classroom: Women and Education in the New South" (University of California at Santa Barbara); Matthew E. Mason, "The Rain Between the Storms: The Politics and Ideology of Slavery in the United States, 1808-1821" (University of Maryland at College Park); and Deborah R. Weiner, "A History of Jewish Life in the Central Appalachian Coalfields, 1870-1970" (West Virginia University). This year's prize committee consisted of Fred A. Bailey, Abilene Christian University, chair; Douglas R. Egerton, LeMoyne College; and Johanna Miller Lewis, University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Submissions for the Woodward Prize for 2004 are invited. Dissertations in southern history completed and defended in 2003 are eligible for the annual prize. It will carry a stipend this year of $3,000. All submissions should be received at the SHA office by May 1, 2004. For full details on submission requirements, see the advertisement in this issue of the Journal. This year's prize committee consists of Martha H. Swain, Mississippi State University, chair; James O. Farmer, University of South Carolina at Aiken; and Sarah E. Gardner, Mercer University.

HOLMES AWARD

The third annual William F. Holmes Award for the best paper presented at the annual meeting by a graduate student or junior faculty member was presented to Judkin Browning of the University of Georgia for his paper "Conflicting Visions of Freedom and Civilization: Forging New Identities in Beaufort, North Carolina, during the Civil War." The prize committee consisted of James C. Klotter, State Historian of Kentucky and professor at Georgetown College, chair; Jonathan M. Bryant, Georgia Southern University; and Kari Frederickson, University of Alabama.

BLASSINGAME PRIZE

The Southern Historical Association is pleased to announce a new award in honor of the distinguished historian John Blassingame, author of many books, including the award-winning The Slave Community. The Blassingame Prize will honor distinguished scholarship and mentorship in African American history. The award carries a $1,000 stipend and will be presented in even-numbered years.

Recipients of the prize will be based on nominations from the SHA membership. In order to nominate a candidate for the award, a letter describing the person's accomplishments should be sent to all three members of the committee. At least two supporting letters should accompany each nomination (though more than two are welcome). For nominations involving a primary role of mentoring African American students, the committee particularly welcomes letters from former students, either graduate of undergraduate. Nominees from all areas of the academic community, including those from community/junior colleges and historically black colleges and universities, as well as from large research universities, are welcome. Nominees will be considered based either on distinguished careers as mentors of African American students, personal scholarly accomplishments, or some combination of both. The first Blassingame Prize will be awarded at a special luncheon for faculty of historically black colleges and universities at the November 2004 SHA meeting in Memphis. Attendance at this luncheon will be free, provided by a generous contribution from Auburn University.

Nominations must be sent to the following three committee members no later than July 1, 2004: Larry E. Rivers, chair, Sociology and Criminology Department, Florida A&M University, Tucker Hall 208, Tallahassee, Florida 32307; Darlene Clark Hine, Department of History, Radcliffe Institute, 34 Concord Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138; and Patricia Sullivan, Department of History, Gambrell Hall 245, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208.

President Wayne Flynt has appointed the following to serve as the Membership Committee for 2004: Glenn Feldman, University of Alabama at Birmingham, chair; Susan Youngblood Ashmore, Emory University at Oxford; Fred A. Bailey, Abilene Christian University; Jennifer E. Brooks, Tusculum College; Sarah Hart Brown, Florida Atlantic University; David C. Carter, Auburn University; Edward Crowther, Adams State University; Jane Dailey, Johns Hopkins University; Anthony L. Donaldson, Auburn University; Ronald D. Eller, University of Kentucky; Arma Marie Evans Lamikanra, West Virginia State College; Paul Harvey, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; Valinda Littlefield, University of South Carolina; Alecia P. Long, Louisiana State Museum; Bobbie Lovett, Tennessee State University; James Oakes, City University of New York; Ted Ownby, University of Mississippi; Carolyn Parker, Alabama A&M University; Dan Puckett, California Baptist University; Junius P. Rodriguez, Eureka College; Mark M. Smith, University of South Carolina; Richard D. Starnes, Western Carolina University; Janice Sumler-Edmond, Huston-Tillotson College; Nyota Tucker, Albany State University; Kara Miles Turner, Morgan State University; Robert J. Vejnar, Emory and Henry College; Charles Vincent, Southern University; Clive J. Webb, University of Sussex; John White, University of Hull; and Sarah Wilkerson-Freeman, Arkansas State University.