From October 8, 2009 – February 5, 2010, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will present an exhibit detailing life and culture of African Americans in the South.  The exhibit is entitled We Shall Not Be Moved:  African Americans in the South, 18th Century to the Present.

The exhibit features newly aquired items and documents never before seen and the release of the online edition of the Guide to African American Resources in the Southern Historical Collection.

The link to the Southern Historical Collection is here:

http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/shc/index.html

On a related topic – a listing of resources online for North Carolina are located here:

http://www.upress.virginia.edu/epub/pyatt/PyaAfro2.html

According to the American Library Association’s African American Studies Librarians Section:  Covering the time period between 1830 and 1865, this collection of primary source records “…is the first to comprehensively detail the extensive work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War.”

The record set, put online by ProQuest, covers about 15,000 works of approximately 300 Black abolitionists in the U.S., Canada, the British Isles, France, and Germany.  It does not appear that one would be able to access this at home without going through a public library access account or visiting your local library, but it is a great collection and one worth perusing if you have a chance.

The urls are:  http://bap.chadwyck.com and is part of the Black Studies Center at http://bsc.chadwyck.com

If you cannot make it to either the Massachusetts Historical Society to hear the lectures and see the exhibit on John Brown, perhaps you can see the exhibit at the New York Historical Society that runs from September 15, 2009 through March 25, 2010.

If you cannot do either — you’re in luck.  Visit Gilder Lehrman’s website at

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/online/johnbrown/

to see the online exhibit.  If you have never visited this site before, you’re in for a treat.  Not only can you see original documents able to be enlarged so you can read them — they have transcriptions as well.

Enjoy!

At its meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 10 October 2009, the American Society of Genealogists voted to give their annual Donald Lines Jacobus Award to FORGOTTEN PATRIOITS, AFRICAN AMERICAN AND AMERICAN INDIAN PATRIOTS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: A GUIDE TO SERVICE, SOURCES, AND STUDIES, edited by Eric Grundset, Director of the DAR Library in Washington, D.C., and published by the DAR in 2008. wins the Jacobus Award

Researched by Briana L. Diaz, Hollis L. Gentry, and Jean D. Strahan, as well as by the editor, this substantial reference work has a general introduction, state-by-state introductions, sources, and bibliography, an alphabetical list of names with source codes, maps, photographs, and a glossary of obscure words found in the original records. Many appendices deal with topics such as documenting the color of soldiers and using names as clues to finding them. It is not a collection of biographies but a compilation of source references for individual soldiers that will greatly improve the breadth and accuracy of research.

Since Revolutionary War service is often the starting point for research on families of color, this book opens new doors in an increasingly compelling field of genealogy.

The Donald Lines Jacobus Award was established in 1972 to encourage sound scholarship in genealogical writing. It is presented to a model genealogical work published within the previous five years. A list of the books receiving the award in previous years appears on the American Society of Genealogists website (www.fasg.org). Anyone planning to publish their own research, especially as a compiled genealogy or family history, would do well to study the format and style of these books.

Tony Burroughs has written a commentary on the story of Michelle Obama’s genealogy which has seen quite a lot of press lately.

You can find the article here:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/10/14/burroughs.obama.genealogy/

AARP’s magazine had an interesting article this month on Pullman Porters.  Within the magazine, they had profiled three gentlemen who worked as porters, including Lee Gibson who is 99 years old.

Unfortunately the article is mostly photographs and brief encapsulated histories of the three men, but there is a short five-minute film on the website at bulletin.aarp.org/Pullman_Porters that is worth watching.

At the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Arkansas in September, I picked up a book Rising from the Rails:  Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class by Larry Tye, Henry Holt & Co, LLC, New York:  2004.  It looks promising.

From the 12th of October through the 23 of December 2009 the Massachusetts Historical Society will be running an exhibit entitled “John Brown – Martyr to Freedom or American Terrorist — or Both?” The exhibit will open on the 150th anniversary of the raid – the 17th of October.

From their flyer:

“On 17 October 1859, abolitionist John Brown and 21 followers made an armed attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in what is now West Virginia, taking townspeople as hostages, seizing arms, and hoping to incite a slave rebellion…the Society’s exhibition will present a selection of personal papers, photographs, engravings, and artifacts that document the raid and Brown’s trial and execution, all of which catalyzed powerful and sometimes extreme reactions from the American public. The debate that began then about the morality and meaning of Brown’s actions continues today, and the display will include examples of the ongoing argument.”

See www.masshist.org/events for more listings of programs at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

From my friends at the New England Chapter of AAHGS:

Nationally syndicated radio host Tom Joyner is asking South Carolina to posthumously pardon two of his great-uncles — black landowners executed in 1915 after being convicted of murdering an elderly Confederate Army veteran.

Read the full story here:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jYdmHE3-2MZ2yA5tbmCQgR-Ss9YwD9B707KG3

In Concord, Massachusetts a battle looms.  The Caesar-Robbins house, believed to be a stop on the Underground Railroad, lost its owner last year when he passed away.  The new owners filed papers to have the house demolished back in March 2009.  Because of the house’s historical significance, the demolition was stayed for six months per law.

A preservation group called the Drinking Gourd Project hopes to raise enough money to save it.  See the full story here:

http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2009/todays-news/group-hopes-to-save.html