There's little question that the Civil War was the seminal event in American history. That was certainly true of Cobb County's 19th century history as well. Until fairly recently, the predominant version of that war revolved around the battles, leaders and rank-and-file soldiers. But the study of the war began to expand in recent decades, a trend likely to keep accelerating through the coming 150th anniversary of the war (2011-15) and beyond.

This year's seventh annual Civil War Symposium at Kennesaw State University March 19-21 reflects that trend. As its title suggests - "Alternative Southern Realities: African Americans and the American Civil War" - its focus is less on the battlefield than on slavery, the home front and the race-related political issues of the war.

"I believe the time has come to listen to those narratives that never come to the surface," explains Hermina Glass-Avery, associate director of The Center for the Study of the Civil War Era at KSU. "I foresee broadening the scope for both the public and academia. There's more to remembering the Civil War than just the SCV (Sons of Confederate Veterans) paying tribute to their ancestors."

"The genre of the Southern narrative has to move beyond the traditional Lost Cause to include voices from many groups including African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, women and children," she said "This symposium aims to assess the themes of freedom, memory and identity from the historically marginalized perspectives of African Americans."

The event is open to the public. Tickets are $15 for students and $25 for others. To register, go to www.kennesaw.edu/civilwarera/.

The symposium will open March 19 with remarks by KSU President Dr. Dan Papp, Georgia Supreme Court Justice Robert Benham, Cobb NAACP president Deanne Bonner Thompson and others.

KSU history professor Dr. Tom Scott will moderate that morning's speakers on the theme "Enslavement, Abolitionism, Resistance." They will be, in order:

* Erskine Clarke, professor emeritus of American Religious History at Columbia Theological Seminary, on "Principles Hallowed by the Blood of Patriots: Competing Memories of the American Civil War."

* Thavolia Glymph, associate professor of American & African American Studies and History at Duke University, on "Enslaved Women and the Armies of the Civil War."

* Samuel Livingston, assistant professor of History and African American Studies at Morehouse College, on the topic, "The Life and Legacy of the Abolitionist Moses Dickson."

* And David Reynolds, distinguished professor of English/American Studies at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, on the topic, "John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War and Seeded Civil Rights." Reynolds compares Brown to modern terrorists, civil-rights activists and freedom fighters.

Speaking that afternoon on the theme "Soldiering and Serving Our Country," narrated by David Parker, will be:

* Margaret Humphreys, Professor in the History of Medicine and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at Duke University. Her topic will be, "Intensely Human: The Health of the Black Soldier in the American Civil War."

* and Gregory Mixon, associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, on the topic, "The Georgia Militia and the Civil War's Legacy, 1865-1875." Mixon, incidentally, is the author of "The Atlanta Race Riot: Race, Class and Violence."

That evening, the symposium will recommence at Zion Baptist Church in Marietta, with a talk by professor John Vlach of George Washington University on "Roots and Branches," followed by a concert featuring the Georgia Spiritual Ensemble and the Frederick Douglass Players.

Then on Saturday, March 20, back at KSU, will follow such speakers as:

* Swarthmore College history professor Alison Dorsey, with "Making Freedom Pay: Pensions, Property and Patriarchy in Post Civil War Georgia"

* Jimmy Carter Presidential Library archivist James Yancey, with "The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands"

* Emory University art history professor Michael D. Harris, with "Race and Visual Representation"

* and Georgia State University Communications professor Patricia G. Davis, with "Ghosts of Nat Turner: Discourses of Historical Agency, Masculinity and Citizenship in African American Civil War Reenactment."

The symposium will conclude on Sunday the 21 with battlefield demonstrations at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, including a talk by battlefield archaeologist Garrett Silliman and living history demonstrations by Company I of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry Regiment, a reenactment group from Charleston, S.C.

There also will be tours offered of African American cultural heritage sites in Marietta, Kennesaw and Acworth as part of the symposium.

"I hope it reaches a wide audience and those who are open to considering that there is an alternative narrative of the Civil War," Ms. Glass-Avery said. "I hope people can walk away from this and say, 'There was my story, and there was someone else's story.'"

It's impossible to understand that war and its ramifications without a thorough grounding in the issues, the leaders and the battlefield action involved.

But the other side of that coin is that those personalities, those issues and those battles were not hatched in a vacuum, and the more we can all learn about that era, the better our understanding of it - and its continuing impact on our culture - will be.

Joe Kirby is Editorial Page Editor of the Marietta Daily Journal and co-author of the new "Then & Now: Marietta Revisited."