BURGAW- On Saturday, Oct. 9, at 12 p.m., Pender County Library will host online a panel of genealogists and historians for a discussion of the role of men of color from southeastern North Carolina in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.
During the hour-long event, to be hosted online via Zoom, three genealogist-historians will tell the story of their ancestors.
Men of color have defined America every step of the way, always in “the room where it happened”: Crispus Attucks, an African & Indigenous man who participated in the street protest known as the Boston Tea Party and was killed by British troops; two men of color named Primus Jacobs—one a formerly enslaved man in Massachusetts, one a third-generation member of a free family of color in North Carolina—both of whom fought in the Revolutionary War; and the many men of color, free and enslaved, who fought on both sides of the Civil War as volunteers and as abductees. Men of color conceived, created, and corrected America alongside their white countrymen, kinsmen, and enslavers.
The presenters include genealogist-historians Tyrone Goodwyn, Luke Alexander, and Kevin Eugene Graham.
Tyrone Goodwyn has researched free persons of color of southeastern North Carolina for over forty years. He concentrates on Pender, New Hanover, Sampson, Duplin, Wayne, and Cumberland counties.
Luke Alexander is a genealogist and community historian with a focus on African American and Indigenous heritage in the Carolinas.
Kevin Eugene Graham is President of the Lower Cape Fear Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, the first African American to hold the office. His research has focused on free families of color from the counties of Bladen, Columbus, New Hanover, Robeson, Pender, and Sampson prior to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
Register online at https://bit.ly/pcl1009, or go to the library’s website, www.penderpubliclibrary.org, and follow the links under the Events tab. You can also call the library and staff will take your registration by phone.
The event will be hosted on Zoom. There is no need to have a Zoom account; just click the link provided in the confirmation email and follow the prompts to download Zoom. The talk can be viewed on smartphones, tablets, or computers. Registration is required.
For more information or assistance, call Pender County Library at 910-259-1234 (Burgaw) or 910-270-4603 (Hampstead) during regular business hours.
