Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, and the March on Washington, 1963, a national traveling exhibition which explores the relationship between two great people’s movements for equal rights, is coming to Central New York, one of fifty national sites awarded this special exhibit.
The exhibit runs June 4 to July 14.
National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum
5255 Pleasant Valley Road
Peterboro New York 13134
315-280-8828
NAHOF and partner libraries are offering free programs in connection with the exhibition.
AT THE MUSEUM:
Saturday, June 4
4:30 pm
The Changing America Exhibit: An Introduction and Explanation by exhibit project director, Tim McLaughlin PhD.
5:30 pm
Reception with refreshments for the public – recognition of members of the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park (for the loan of the sculpture The Young Lincoln) and the persons involved in the 2015 Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle programs in Madison County. (Created Equal was made possible through a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.)
7:00 pm
Emancipation Music: Lyrics and Songs presented and performed by Max Smith. A selection of songs from 1863 and 1963 will be explained as to historical origins, uses, performers, and sung by Smith. An “Emancipation Hymnal” program will be given to the audience members.
Saturday, June 18
2:00 pm
Remembering the March on Washington with personal accounts, pictures, and newspaper reports, hosted by Tim McLaughlin PhD during New York State’s Path through History Weekend.
Saturday, June 25
2:00 pm
Spaces of Enslavement: Spaces of Freedom, presented by Ary J. Lamme III PhD, followed by a tour of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark freedom spaces with Norman K. Dann PhD.
Sunday, July 3
2:00 pm
Christine Ridarsky, City of Rochester Historian, shows a video of the discovery of a Frederick Douglass portrait found in a scrapbook, and will speak on What to the Slave in the Fourth of July? , a speech by Douglass.
Saturday July 9
2:00 pm
NAHOF Cultural Diversity Committee examines how their mission “to complete the second and ongoing abolition” relates to Resisting the New Jim Crow.
AT LOCAL LIBRARIES:
Thursday, April 28
7:00 pm
Oneida Public Library, in preparation for the Changing America exhibit, will show a PBS movie The March on Washington after which Max Smith, Co-Chair of the Annual Peterboro Emancipation Day, will lead a discussion on the movie.
Wednesday, May 25
7:00 pm
Cazenovia Public Library will show the movie Brother Outside: The Life of Bayard Rustin. Rustin was the primary organizer of the March on Washington in 1963.
Monday, June 6
7:00 pm
Hamilton Public Library will host a book discussion on The Help, led by library staff.
Changing America is presented by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of American History in collaboration with the American Library Association Public Programs Office. The traveling exhibition is made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
