Commonwealth Speakers:The African American Experience
The team most identified as the greatest black baseball team of all time is the 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords. Known as the "Yankees of the Negro Leagues," the 1935 team featured five Hall-of-Famers: Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, and "Judy" Johnson.
Using slides, video clips,and anecdotes, Stanton Green tells the story of baseball's Negro Leagues. Between 1920 and 1950, its teams played major-league-caliber baseball and produced some of baseball's greatest players, such as Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, and Josh Gibson, arguably the greatest home-run hitter in baseball history. The Negro Leagues became a major social institution among African Americans in many cities across the United States, including Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, which fielded three of the most successful Negro League teams: the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the Homestead Grays, and the Philadelphia Stars.
Slide projector, screen, TV, VCR, and CD/cassette player required.
Stanton Green, Ph.D., Anthropologist, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Clarion
University
Jennifer Zarro highlights the importance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's collection of African American artwork and introduces audiences to selected works from the collection. She begins with colonial Philadelphia artists of color who worked in the silver smithing and furniture making fields, then moves on to artists such as Henry Ossawa Tanner and Horace Pippin, and concludes with contemporary artists such as Lorna Simpson and Glenn Ligon. Both the artists' biographies and their working styles are examined.
Slide projector and screen required. PowerPoint preferred.
Jennifer Zarro, Art Historian, Philadelphia
Prior to the Civil War, there were African Americans residing in every county in Pennsylvania, two-thirds of them in small towns and villages. These communities created rescue plans to help slaves escape to freedom and helped prepare fugitives for life as free men and women. Using the latest scholarship, Karen James examines the Underground Railroad from the point of view of 19th-century African American communities and their little-known struggle against slavery.
Karen James, Division of History, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg
The Fugitive Slave Law: In Pursuit of JusticeLong before the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, hundreds of African men and women fled north to freedom in Pennsylvania, but with them came kidnappers, slave catchers, slave holders, and corrupt law officers. Karen James examines the Pennsylvania and U.S. laws concerning slavery in the decades before the Civil War as well as the individual cases that helped to change these laws, leading ultimately to the Fugitive Slave Law and the Christiana Riots.
Karen James, Division of History, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg
The Price of a Child: The Struggle for FreedomCarla Verderame discusses Lorene Carey's The Price of a Child, the selection for Philadelphia's first "One Book, One Philadelphia" program. Based on the actual escape of the slave Jane Johnson from Virginia, The Price of a Child is a stirring account of one woman's escape to, and early experience of, freedom in southeastern Pennsylvania.
(Familiarity with the book is useful for discussion.)
Carla L. Verderame, Associate Professor of English, West Chester
University
While oral tradition and documentary history can tell us much about Underground Railroad activities in Pennsylvania, many secrets about the movement are literally hidden underground. James Delle explores how archaeology can reveal secrets about the movement that helped fugitive slaves gain their freedom by discussing several Underground Railroad sites in eastern Pennsylvania, including the Parvin Homestead in Berks County and the Thaddeus Stevens house in Lancaster.
Projection screen required.
James Delle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Kutztown
University
Appearing in authentic 19th-century garb, Joe Becton incorporates an interactive style to open a window into the world of Civil War African American soldiers. Using an array of techniques including period equipment, music, or poetry, he identifies the causes of the Civil War, exposes the conditions of camp life, and explores the reality of war.
Chalkboard, chalk, table, and chair required.
Joseph Becton, Interpreter and Musician, Philadelphia
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