The day's schedule is as follows:

10:30-10:45 a.m.

10:45-11:30 a.m.

Panel discussion: Immigrants

11:30-12:15 p.m.

12:15-2:15 p.m.

Lunch (on your own)

1-2:15 p.m

2:15-3:15 p.m.

Civil Rights roundtable

3:15-4 p.m.

4 p.m.

Closingremarks

The symposium is the capstone of Tricentennial Commission's Cultural and Historical Committee, which is chaired by author and former Associate Vice President for External Affairs at Xavier University Sybil Morial and The Historic New Orleans Collection Executive Director Priscilla Lawrence.

"This is a unique opportunity to gather as a community, reflect on our city's 300 year legacy, share groundbreaking scholarship and examine this fascinating place we call home," Lawrence said.

Comprising individual lectures and panel discussions, the symposium will be held at a different location each day. Thursday's keynote session will take place at Tulane University's McAlister Auditorium and will feature speaker native New Orleanian Cokie Roberts, an NPR Morning Edition commentator, political commentator for ABC News and the author of numerous books on American history.

Friday's sessions will be held in the French Quarter at the Hotel Monteleone. Xavier University will host the programs for Saturday before the program concludes on Sunday at the University of New Orleans. Additional evening events will take place on the 500 block of Royal Street at The Historic New Orleans Collection on Friday, March 9 and the New Orleans Jazz Museum on Saturday, March 10.

Emily Clark, the Clement Chambers Benenson Professor in American Colonial History at Tulane University, chaired the subcommittee that selected more than two dozen speakers and panelists.

Isabel Wilkerson, author of the award-winning book "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration" (Random House, 2010), is the featured speaker on Saturday morning, March 10, when talks will be held at Xavier University's McCaffrey Ballroom in the University Center. Wilkerson won a Pulitzer Prize for her earlier work at the New York Times, making her both the first black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer and the first African American reporter to win for individual reporting.

The symposium is presented by the City of New Orleans 2018 Commission's Cultural and Historical Committee with the Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, The Historic New Orleans Collection, the Ethel and Herman L. Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the University of New Orleans and Xavier University of Louisiana