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Black History Month Event
Civil War to Civil Rights: Resilience and Resistance, Then and Now
Featuring, Dr. Frank Smith, Executive Director, African American Civil War Museum
Saturday, February 22nd, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Via Zoom (See Link Below)
The Mount Hope Commission invites you to join us as we celebrate Black History Month. Our program: Civil War to Civil Rights: Resilience and Resistance, Then and Now, will feature, Frank Smith, Ph.D., Executive Director of the African American Civil War Memorial Museum. Dr. Smith will discuss how the 20th-century fight for civil rights has its roots in the 19th-century struggle to abolish slavery. He will share the pivotal role of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) in the fight for freedom.
Dr. Smith laid the groundwork to establish the memorial, a national landmark, during his four elected terms with the District Council in Washington, D.C. He oversaw the dedication of the African American Civil War Memorial in July 1998, fulfilling his lifelong dream to honor the USCT.
A veteran civil rights activist, Dr. Smith was a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) member in Mississippi and Georgia in the early 1960’s. He was arrested in Greenwood, Mississippi where for helping people exercise their Constitutional right to vote. He attended the March on Washington in August 1963 to hear a speech by his SNCC leader, John Lewis, who later served in congress from 1997 until his death in 2020. A copy of Congressman Lewis’ March on Washington speech, which made the case for Congressional support of SNCC voter registration in the Black Belt Counties of the South, is on display at the museum.
“Marching, singing, and celebrating with a crowd of more than 250,000 people at the March on Washington was the emotional and community support I and other SNCC members needed to go back to the South and continue our work,” said Dr. Smith. “The March on Washington and other civil rights protests were the catalysts that pushed Congress to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which set America on a path to freedom and justice that continues today.”
A graduate of Morehouse College, Dr. Smith received the Presidential Renaissance Medallion, the highest honor awarded by the president of the institution. He was recognized for his contributions as a civil rights activist, an elected official, and an advocate of history and the fine arts.
Dr. Smith has received numerous awards and honors including The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.’s Visionary Historian Award for his lifetime body of work toward the study of Washington, D.C. and related history.
We hope that you will join us for what is sure to be an inspiring, relevant and engaging presentation.
The Mount Hope Commission believes that a just, fair, and loving community is achieved by understanding our history and how it has shaped who we are today. By building an understanding that binds us together, we can acknowledge and reconcile our past, and mindfully build our future.
Zoom Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86246444033?pwd=bkqRFrvyrjpMbuWbmxSMJIsoqcJ0Jz.1
Meeting ID: 862 4644 4033
Passcode: 046142
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