Featured Programs for Black History Month
In February, Montgomery County Historical Society’s Speakers Bureau is presenting four topics on African American history in Montgomery County at local libraries for Black History Month.
Stories from Rockville’s Underground Railroad
Kensington Park Library
Saturday, February 9, 2013, 2:00 p.m.
Speaker: Maude McGovern
Find out about the young Ann Maria Weems who escaped slavery in Rockville dressed as a coachman and whose story vividly illustrates the twists and turns of ongoing research on the Underground Railroad. Learn about two sisters from a prominent Rockville family who exemplify the differences between slaveholders. Hear about Josiah Henson (the model for the title character of Uncle Tom’s Cabin) who risked all for freedom.”
Maude McGovern has spoken on Rockville's Underground Railroad to numerous community groups and at the Maryland State Archives. She has a BA and MA in American Civilization and indulges her lifelong interest in local history as a volunteer with the Montgomery County Historical Society and The Menare Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Underground Railroad history.
African-American History in Montgomery County: The Boyd School & Education
Poolesville Library
Saturday, February 23, 2013, 2:00 p.m.
Speaker: Elaine R. Fors-MacKellar
The Boyd (or Boyds) Negro School was a rural, segregated school that served the African-American children of Boyds and several surrounding communities from 1896-1936. The little rural one room school, which was without central heat, water or electricity, served children from grades 1-7, most of whom walked for many miles to get there. The PowerPoint and video presentation describes how this small rural segregated school represents an important segment of the timeline of the history of segregated education within Montgomery County, from the beginnings of public education for students of color through the landmark decision in Brown vs. Board of Education. The story is told in part through the personal recollections of former students and teachers.”
Elaine R. Fors-MacKellar, M.S., is an attorney and educator in Montgomery County. She is a life-long resident of Montgomery County, and currently lives in Boyds.
African Americans in Montgomery County During the Civil War
Germantown Library
Saturday, February 23, 2013, 2:00 p.m.
Speaker: Susan Soderberg
"On the eve of the Civil War, Montgomery County had a population of 18,322, including 5,500 enslaved people and 1,500 free blacks. The African Americans viewed the Civil War from an entirely different perspective than their white owners and neighbors. Autonomy and respect was what they yearned for and this is what the Civil War promised to the enslaved." This topic was the subject of an article by the same title in the Summer 2011 issue of the Montgomery County Story, the biannual journal published by MCHS.
Susan Soderberg is a historian and free-lance writer presently living in Maryland. She has a BA in Art History from the College of William & Mary and a MA in American Studies from George Washington University. She was one of two researchers for the Emmy Award winning documentary, “Life in the War Zone: Montgomery County in the Civil War,” produced by Heritage Montgomery.
Message or Myth: Quilts and the Underground Railroad
Quince Orchard Library
Tuesday, February 26, 2013, 2:00 p.m.
Speaker: Susan Soderberg
Recently a theory that quilts were used as signals on the Underground Railroad has spread like wildfire to become widely held as historical fact. Kate Clifford Larson, author of the acclaimed autobiography of Harriet Tubman, Bound for the Promised Land says about this theory that "The difficult stories of slavery and resistance somehow are softened by the images of pretty quilts, but by focusing on those pretty quilt designs we are once again obscuring the truth. This presentation will go into the history of quilting in America and the history of the Underground Railroad and has a surprise ending with an entirely new theory.”
Susan Soderberg is a historian and free-lance writer presently living in Maryland. She has a BA in Art History from the College of William & Mary and a MA in American Studies from George Washington University. She was one of two researchers for the Emmy Award winning documentary, “Life in the War Zone: Montgomery County in the Civil War,” produced by Heritage Montgomery.
Library Programs
Loading...
Lorenzo Dow Turner: From Lincoln Park to Leading Scholar
Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner (1890-1972) is the first African American linguist and a founder of the field of African American Studies. Dr. Turner lived in the Lincoln Park community of Rockville and was educated in the Montgomery County segregated public schools where his father taught.
School Photo: Rockville Colored Elementary School, Washington St., c. 1902
Dr. Turner is circled.
Additional resources on Dr. Turner and the Gullah language:
-
A Language Explorer Who Heard Echoes of Africa
New York Times article published 9/2/10 -
Lorenzo Dow Turner, PhD ’26
University of Chicago Magazine article -
Africanisms in the Gullah dialect
by Lorenzo Dow Turner (Google Books)
Read more about the history of Lincoln Park.
Reuben Hill House, 305 Lincoln Avenue.
Drawing by Maureen McKay for Peerless Rockville
Loading...
