The Preservation of Abraham Hall

Abraham Hall

Abraham Hall

Photo Source: www.history.pgparks.com

Built in the late 1880s, Abraham Hall has stood as the “center of social activity” in the black-founded community of Rossville. The Benevolent Sons and Daughters of Abraham, a social welfare society, founded the building. In an article written in the Gazette, the staff at the Prince George’s County Department of Parks and Recreation informs the public that they will soon be digitalizing the document archives that tell the history of the building that has been in existence since 1889.

First serving as a church temporarily and then as a school when the Muirkirk Rosenwald School was being built, this center became so much more. It was the location for town hall meetings, a place to hold wedding and baby showers, and a place for adults and children to fellowship.  From those moments, artifacts have been collected and are currently on display in the center.

This month Abraham Hall is being honors at Laurel’s Montpelier Arts Center titled “Glancing Back & Looking Forward: 100 years of African American Culture and History in Prince George’s County”.

Erica Marshall, Winter Intern

 

Jacob Lawrence Panel Discussion on February 27th

Next Friday at 2:30pm, The Phillips Collection will be hosting a panel discussion titled, “Jacob Lawrence’s Struggle”. Moderated by UVA Professor of Modern Art and former Phillips senior curator Elizabeth Hutton Turner, this panel will further critique and analyze his Struggle Series, created between 1954 and 1956. It will feature guest panelists from George Mason University, University of Maryland, and the National Museum of African American History.  David Driskell, who will be featured in The Rosenwald Schools, is one of those panelists.

Conveniently held during the 39th Black History Month, they will discuss the art’s contribution to social awareness during the Civil Rights Movement. As a Rosenwald grant recipient, Lawrence was given the opportunity to travel to the segregated Jim Crow south and use his experiences as inspiration to create great and memorable that is still observed today.


Jacob Lawrence photographed in the early 1940s

Photo Source: www.uscg.mil

To see the full list of panelists and find more information about Jacob Lawrence and The Phillips Collection, click here.

Erica Marshall, Winter Intern

Book about Ethel Payne is Reviewed by The New York Times

Recently, The New York Times wrote a review on Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press by James McGrath Morris, a biography about an African American woman who broke journalistic barriers by getting out news via the Chicago Defender, “America’s premier black newspaper”.  Created in the first half of the 20th Century when blacks did not have much access black newspapers, it was banned in many Southern states.

Pullman porters, men and women who were the underground heroes, transported bundles of the newspapers on various trains going southward to be delivered by hand instead of via the mail. This increased the circulation of the weekly news to over 130,000. As the “pre-eminent black female reporter of the civil rights era”, Payne overcame the obstacles racism presented and wrote about various hot topics in the African-American community such as voter registration drives, adoption by black families, and the Vietnam War.

In the documentary, Representative Danny Davis goes into detail about the Chicago Defender and its influence during the same time that Julius Rosenwald’s philanthropic efforts assisted in the building of Rosenwald schools.

To read more about the Chicago Defender, click here.

Photograph of Ethel Payne

Photo Source: www.google.com

Erica Marshall, Winter Intern

THE ROSENWALD SCHOOLS SCREENING AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY

On Friday February 27th 2015, Rosenwaldwill be screened at Howard University. Founded in 1867, Howard is a historically black university that served as the capstone for many African-Americans to pursue professional careers in the fields of law, medicine and many more during a time when most blacks were only expected to work in education and agriculture. It is also the academic home of several Rosenwald grant recipients.

After the screening, there will be a panel featuring Jay Stewart, Professor of Political Science and Stephanie Deutsch, author of You Need a Schoolhouse, Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South. Admission is FREE. The screening will begin at 11:00am. It will take place in the School of Communications located at 525 Bryant Street NW 20059 on the 3rd Floor in Screening Room West. All are welcome to attend!

Photograph of the Howard University School of Communications

Photo Source: www.howard.edu

Erica Marshall, Winter Intern

Postal Museum Honors First Black MIT Graduate

Valerie Jarrett, the daughter of Barbara Bowman who is an interviewee for the documentary, comes from a rich legacy. In addition to being top aide to President Obama, she is the great-granddaughter of Robert Robinson Taylor, who most believe is the first African-American to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT) and one of the first black architects in the country.

On February 12th, he was officially honored as the next face that will be shown on the Black Heritage stamp at the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC. According to The Washington Post, the ceremony featured the Howard Singers from Howard University, a historically black university that has educated some Rosenwald grant recipients.  A’Lelia Bundles, who is also an interviewee in the documentary and great-granddaughter of Madame CJ Walker, was the MC at this event.

There is also a new exhibit titled “Freedom Just Around the Corner: Black America from Civil War to Civil Rights,” that opened yesterday and will run until February 15th, 2016.  Described by the museum as “A chronicle of the African American experience told from the perspective of stamps and mail,” the exhibit will surely be a treat for those who want to know about black history in America from a different perspective.

For more information about to the National Postal Museum, go to: http://postalmuseum.si.edu/.

Photograph of Robert Robinson Taylor’s stamp

Photo Source: www.stampnewsnow.com

Erica Marshall, Winter Intern