A CENTURY OF STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM
Tuesday, January 18, 6:00 pm
Speaker: Adam Hochschild
Beginning with the founding of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in London on June 7, 1787, journalist Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost, presents a well-researched and very readable account of "the first human rights crusade." This crusade mobilized public opinion in Britain to move Parliament to abolish the slave trade in the British empire in 1808. Despite this success, why did the movement fail to abolish slavery? Bury the Chains will be available for purchase in the Newberry Library's A. C. McClurg Bookstore. A book signing follows the talk.
Tuesday, February 8, 6:00 pm
Speaker: Kate Clifford Larson
Note: This lecture will be repeated February 9, 6:30 pm at the Chicago Public Library Woodson Regional Branch, 9525 S. Halsted.
Larson's new biography of Harriet Tubman, Bound for the Promised Land, makes real the larger-than-life heroine of countless children's books. Once she escaped slavery, Tubman repeatedly ventured deep into Maryland's East Shore to liberate enslaved members of her own family and to recruit other runaway slaves. During the Civil War, she served in the Union Army as a scout, nurse, and spy. She became a leading member of communities of self-emancipated former slaves in Ontario, Canada and New York state. Bound for the Promised Land will be available for purchase in the Newberry Library's A. C. McClurg Bookstore. A book signing follows the talk.
Thursday, February 10, 6:00 pm
Speaker: Dennis Looney, University of Pittsburgh
In a surprising number of ways, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) has assumed a noteworthy position in African American culture. From such nineteenth-century abolitionists as Frederick Douglass to the contemporary poet Carl Phillips, African American authors and artists have regularly turned to Dante as a source, appropriating his work to suit the needs of their readers. Looney, Associate Professor of Italian, turns to the roots of this phenomenon to understand the role of Dante in abolitionist discourse, the creation of a "Protestant" Dante in the nineteenth century, and how one post-Civil War Black poet presented the great medieval Italian poet as an abolitionist fighting for the equality of Florentine citizens. Organized by the Newberry's Center for Renaissance Studies with support from the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Chicago.
Saturday, March 19, 9:30 am - 3:00 pm
Join us to celebrate the award from the State of Illinois to the Newberry Library to enhance its African-American family history reference collection and to increase public knowledge of its existing collections in this field.
9:30 am - 10:30 am
Jack Simpson, Curator of Local and Family History at the Newberry, will discuss the Library's African-American genealogy resources and give a tour of the genealogy reading room.
11:00 am
Ronne Hartfield will discuss and sign her book, Another Way Home: The Tangled Roots of Race in One Chicago Family. She draws upon her mother's recollections and her own genealogical research to portray mixed-race Americans who--even with the limits of segregation--lived their lives with resilience and grace. She places her family's history in the context of the tumultuous history of race relations in the United States
Noon
Lunch break on your own.
1:00 pm
Newberry library archivists will discuss the Newberry's Pullman employment records and African-American genealogy research strategies.
Saturday, April 16, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm
Speaker and Tour Leader: Glennette Tilley Turner
Join Mrs. Turner, author of The Underground Railroad in Illinois, for a bus tour of centers of anti-slavery activity in the Chicago area, including Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church and the Graue Mill Underground Railroad station in DuPage County.
Co-sponsored by the Chicago Historical Society. The tour fee includes a box lunch.
$65 ($55 for Newberry Library Associates and Chicago Historical Society members). The tour will not run with fewer than 25 registrants, and full refunds will be given if the tour is cancelled. If a participant cancels, 50% of the tour registration fee will be refunded up to two weeks in advance of the tour. To register by check, mail the registration form to: Newberry Library Center for Public Programs, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago, IL 60610-7324; by credit card, call (312) 255-3700.
On Sunday, April 17 at 2:00 pm, don't miss the Chicago Historical Society's presentation of Fergus Bordewich discussing his book, Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America.
Note location: The Chicago Historical Society at North Avenue and Clark Street.
Newberry Library
Center for Public Programs
60 West Walton Street
Chicago, IL 60610-7324
telephone: (312) 255-3700
fax: (312) 255-3680
e-mail: pubprog@newberry.org