The State Library will host a virtual panel discussion from Noon to 1:00 p.m. on December 9, 2020.
You may RSVP to ra-edmakerspace@pa.gov. A link to join the program will be sent to you before the discussion.
About the Book:
In 2020, a coalition of citizens, organizers, legislators, and educators came together to commemorate the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments by establishing a new monument in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This would be a memorial dedicated to the capital city's significant African American community and its historic struggle for the vote. The Commonwealth Monument, located on the Irvis Equality Circle on the South Lawn of Pennsylvania's State Capitol Grounds, features a bronze pedestal inscribed with one hundred names of change agents who pursued the power of suffrage and citizenship between 1850 and 1920.
This book is a companion to this monument and tells the stories of those one hundred freedom seekers, abolitionists, activists, suffragists, moralists, policemen, masons, doctors, lawyers, musicians, poets, publishers, teachers, preachers, housekeepers, janitors, and business leaders, among many others. In their committed advocacy for freedom, equality, and justice, these inspiring men and women made unique and lasting contributions to the standing and life of African Americans—and, indeed, the political power of all Americans—within their local communities and across the country. (from the publisher - www.thedigitalpress.org)
About the Panelists:
Calobe Jackson Jr. is a ninety-year-old native of Harrisburg who specializes in Harrisburg African American and School District history. He is an editor of the One Hundred Voices book.
Lenwood Sloan serves as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Monument Project that preserves, conserves, and rededicates historic and cultural monuments throughout the state. In that capacity, he is spearheading the placement of the first monument dedicated to the 15th and 19thamendments in the United States at Pennsylvania's Capitol.
He serves as Pennsylvania Governor Wolf's appointee to the Commonwealth Capitol Preservation Committee (CPC). Also, he is a board member for The African American Irish Diaspora Network (AAIDN), the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAFA, the Pennsylvania Downtown Association (PDA), the Lancaster (Pa.) Heritage Society (LHS), and the Lancaster (Pa.) Public Arts Program. (LPAP) For the past 30 years, he has collaborated with the renowned Dr. Mick Maloney presenting programs, concerts, and masterclasses on the convergence, contributions, and conflicts of Black and Irish experiences in the United States. Their collaboration has taken the pair from New York to San Francisco and Cuba to Limerick, Ireland.
Dr. Sharonn Williams is a retired educator, administrator, and technologist who has researched her own family history for forty years. She is a co-founder of the KINdred Spirits Genealogy Workshop Group in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her expertise has contributed to the completion of several projects, presentations, publications, and a documentary film.
Dr. Jean Thompson Corey is a Professor of English and Director of the Center for Public Humanities at Messiah College, which works to bring academic, civic, and cultural communities together through collaborative initiatives in humanities-based education and research. Dr. Corey's research and teaching focus on writing and the intersection of ethnicity, race, religion and gender, service-learning and pedagogy, and humanities and public engagement.
Dr. David Pettegrew is a professor of history and archaeology at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. His area of specialty is the ancient Mediterranean world. Since 2014 he has co-directed the Digital Harrisburg Initiative, a series of digital and public humanities projects related to the history of Pennsylvania's state capital. He is one of the co-editors of the One Hundred Voices book.