|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
MEDIA CONTACT: Maureen Fleming |
|
January 31, 2002 |
(202) 994-1423 |
GW PROFESSOR HONORS “THE 54th”
As Part Of Black History Month, Historian James O. Horton
Remembers One Of The Most Celebrated Regiments Of Black Soldiers That Fought In
The Civil War
February 10
| EVENT: | The courage and sacrifice of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War helped to dispel doubt within the Union Army about the fighting ability of black soldiers and earned the regiment undying battlefield glory. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Gallery of Art will host GW Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Civilization and History James O. Horton and editors Thomas J. Brown and Martin Blatt for a lecture and book signing of Hope & Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment (University of Massachusetts Press, 2000). Hope & Glory captures the Civil War's higher purpose-the end of slavery-and memorializes those black soldiers and white officers who made common cause in the service of freedom. |
| WHEN: |
Sunday, February 10, 2002 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.: Three twenty-minute lectures followed by discussion 3:30 p.m.: Book signing 4:30 p.m.: Screening of the movie Glory (1989, Tri-Star Pictures) |
| WHERE: |
National Gallery of
Art, East Building Auditorium 4th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. |
| COST: | The event is free and open to the public. No reservations are required. Limited seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. |
Background
James Oliver Horton writes and lectures on 19th Century African American social history. His 1997 book, In Hope of Liberty (Oxford Press), follows free blacks in the North from 1700 to the Civil War. Many of the men he wrote about in that book ended up fighting in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment (Horton says he “felt like I knew those soldiers as kids growing up before the War”), leading to his contributing essay “Defending the Manhood of the Race” in Hope & Glory. Horton provides historical commentary on the Civil War and illustrates the handicaps, and the hardships to fighting for African Americans on the DVD version of the movie Glory, being screened at the National Gallery of Art event. Horton will also be signing his 2001 book Hard Road to Freedom: The Story of African America (Rutgers University Press), coauthored with Lois E. Horton. Horton participates regularly in specials on the History Channel, and will host “A Fragile Freedom: The Landmarks of African American History” on February 13 at 10:00 p.m. on the History Channel.
-- GW --