Posts Tagged ‘African-American history’
Proposed visitor center for the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park, designed by GWWO, Inc./Architects. Courtesy GWWO, Inc.
By Barbara Tagger
I was a conductor on the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger (Harriet Tubman, 1896).
On March 25, 2013, President Barack Obama established by proclamation the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument in Tubman’s native Dorchester County, Maryland. Encompassing some 25,000 acres of federal, state, and private lands, including large segments of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, the Tubman memorial honors the life and legacy of one of the United States’ most outstanding human rights advocates and freedom fighters best known for her role as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. It is the 399th unit of the National Park Service (NPS), one of thirty-six focusing on African American themes and one of three recognizing African American women. Read more.
From H-New Jersey:
The Christie Administration announced that Paterson’s Hinchliffe Stadium has been named a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The stadium is already listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.
Hinchliffe Stadium opened in 1932 and is one of only two surviving Negro Baseball League home fields in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Hinchliffe is an exceptional example of a Negro League baseball stadium in 20th-century segregated America. It served as home field for teams such as the New York Black Yankees and the New York Cubans. Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Leroy Satchel Paige and Paterson native Larry Doby all played at Hichliffe Stadium. Hinchliffe hosted the 1933 Colored Championship of the Nation.
Alternatively called “City” Stadium, Hinchliffe was built with public funds at the start of the Great Depression. The stadium also served as a venue for boxing, auto racing and professional football. In the early 1960s Paterson’ schools took ownership of Hinchliffe and enlarged the facility. Despite being in use into the 1990s, Hinchliffe fell into disrepair and was closed at the end of the 1996-97 school year.
Learn more about this historic stadium and the campaign to save Hinchliffe at the Friends of Hinchliffe website.
See a slideshow of Hinchliffe as it appears today at digitalballparks.com.
Watch a 2006 video on the historical significance of Hinchliffe created by Brian LoPinto who grew up in Paterson and is co-founder of the Friends of Hinchcliffe (2006).
Museum collections are so often the product of serendipity and circumstance— accumulated over a long period of time, shaped by curators’ interests, particular exhibition needs, bequests and a myriad of other factors. But what about a museum starting from scratch? Read more.
From the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission:
On Monday, February 25, 5:30-7:45pm, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is hosting an event to highlight its African American Heritage Tour project at the African American Museum in Philadelphia.
Exhibits will be open to attendees at 5:30pm. Florcy Morisset, Director of Programs, Richard Allen Museum, Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church will give opening remarks at 6:20pm followed by Amy Hillier, University of Pennsylvania who will present on “The Ward: Race and Class in Du Bois’ 7th Ward.” A panel discussion featuring Cassidy Boulan, DVRPC; Aissia Richardson, Uptown Entertainment and Development Corporation; and Melissa Jest, Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia will begin at 6:55.
To RSVP or for more information please contact Jane Meconi at 215.238.2871 or jmeconi@dvrpc.org.
From Historic Germantown:
The first protest against slavery happened right here in Germantown in 1688, 177 years before the 13th amendment was passed to abolish it. Black History runs deep in our community. From the past to the present we celebrate our rich history in the pursuit of freedom all year round.
Join us this month for some special events.
Saturday, February 9th at 1pm, two great lectures!
Stenton presents:
“Doing Unto Others: The Development of an Anti-Slavery Testimony Among Philadelphia Quakers”
Participants will hear about the growing anti-slavery testimony among Quakers, and its influence on the larger society, from the anti-slavery pamphlets of the 1750s to the creation of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society in 1775. Lecture by Christopher Densmore, Curator and Director of Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Tours of Stenton emphasizing service spaces on the property will follow the talk. Admission is free. Please call or email programs@stenton.org to make a reservation or for more information.
Visit Awbury Arboretum for African and African American Vegetable Cultivars. Hear food justice champion and farm educator Chris Bolden Newsome talk about traditional African and African American agricultural cultivators that have impacted the national and global food system.
Cost: $5.00, or free to members of partnering Neighborhood Associations.
Come out to The Johnson House on Sunday, February 24th for their Annual Freedom Essay Contest Commemorating the 325th Anniversary of the Protest Against Slavery. In addition to students receiving prizes for their essays, there will be a spoken presentation of The Good Raised Up, an original work of ‘sung story by storyteller Charlotte Blake-Alston and jazz violinist John Blake Jr.
Portrait of a Washerwoman for the Union Army in Richmond, virginia with an American flag pinned to dress. Photographer: Unknown, Ca. 1862-65. Ambrotype. Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution, Photographic History Collection, Division of Information Technology and Communications, National Museum of American History.
January 1, 2013 marked the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. In commemoration, a number of institutions throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region briefly displayed copies of the hallowed document before whisking them necessarily back to climate controlled safety.
However, if you missed earlier events or want to learn more about Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the promises it held there are still a number of exhibitions, lectures and programs available in the region: Read more.
From The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education:
Fordham University has announced plans to establish the Burial Database Project of Enslaved African Americans. The project aims to create a national database for burial grounds and cemeteries of enslaved African Americans within the United States. Read more.
From the Pennsylvania Abolition Society:
The Pennsylvania Abolition Society seeks proposals for its annual grants to its fund established at The Philadelphia Foundation. Grant applications are due on December 31, 2012. More information after the break. Read more.
Cliveden in historic Germantown has undertaken a monumental overhaul of its site interpretation. Beginning in 1994, staff members and volunteers researched over 230,000 Chew family documents related to enslaved Africans and servants at Cliveden and Chew family plantations throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Researchers at Cliveden believe the project rewrites the history of Historic Germantown
The Emancipating Cliveden project has resulted in a new interpretive website, a multimedia presentation and an orientation exhibit entitled Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness? The new website explores and presents the expanded history of Cliveden, includes previously unseen historical images, and an interactive map of Cliveden. The site urges visitors to Know It (the architecture of Cliveden), Feel It (the people of Cliveden), and Share It (a blog on recent discoveries).
It is hoped that the new features will combine historical facts and modern perspectives with “American stories of privilege, oppression, independence, slavery, race, the struggle for freedom and the tensions between democratic ideals and capitalist principles.” In staging the Emancipating Cliveden Project, Cliveden strives to tell a more complete story while allowing visitors to examine and question many of the contradictions in American history.
Emancipating Cliveden will be unveiled on Independence Day at Cliveden. The festivities for the day will include Reenactment and Griot storytelling by Denise Valentine, free tours of the Chew Mansion, the premiere of the Emancipating Cliveden film and the Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness? exhibit. The celebration begins on Wednesday, July 4th at 12:00 noon and continues until 4:00 pm.
On Thursday, February 23 the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center (FWWIC) presents a special Black History Month event, African-Americans as Militiamen During the American War of Independence. Dr. Robert Selig, an historian who specializes on the American Revolutionary War, will speak about the conditions within which militia service developed.
Historian Joe Becton (audio) will present his research on the history of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental Army. The 1st Rhode Island was known as the “Black Regiment.” The Rhode Island legislature, faced with dwindling recruitment numbers, extended enlistment (and freedom) to “able-bodied” slaves. In his research, Becton has identified 287 members of the unit.
The program will focus on Pennsylvania and Rhode Island in particular.
Additionally, Congressman Chaka Fattah, who serves as an Honorary Co-Chair on the FWWIC Advisory Council, will be recognized for his contributions to the creation of a new seven hundred mile National Historic Trail. In 2009, Congressman Fattah co-sponsored the legislation that created the trail, which runs from Boston, Massachusetts to Yorktown, Virginia.
Joseph DiBello, the National Park Service Superintendent for the Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route (W3R) National Historic Trail, will present the new brochures and maps at the FWWIC.
For more information, see the flyer below (a few clicks are necessary), or call 215-685-0723
By OBREAKSL penny stocks