The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library will show the documentary “The Underground Railroad” on Thursday, May 23, at 2 p.m. as part of its “Civil War 150” series.
The movie explores how the Underground Railroad began in colonial America and continued until the end of the Civil War. Native Americans helped the earliest slaves escape into Spanish Florida. Later, slaves found their way to freedom in the northern states, Canada, the western frontier and Cuba.
Award-winning actress Alfre Woodard narrates this history with the help of archival images, dramatic reenactments and comments from prominent historians.
The “Civil War 150” series includes speakers and exhibits highlighting various aspects of the American Civil War throughout the month of May in honor of the 150th anniversary of that momentous event.
A program May 30 at 2 p.m. features Ted M. Ownby, director of the Center for the Student of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, speaking on “Patriarchy in the World Where There is no Parting: Confederates and Their Views on the Afterlife.”
Through June 28, the library also hosts the traveling exhibit “Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant Saving and Changing the United States: The Impact on Mississippi,” which explores Lincoln and Grant’s effect on the Magnolia State. The exhibit was created by the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University and made possible through a grant from the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation.
Other exhibits include Civil War family memorabilia from the collection of local historian and author Rufus Ward as well as items from the Billups-Garth Archives at the library. All events are free and open to the public.
A list of events and further resources can be found at civilwar150columbusms.wordpress.com.
Partners include the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Library of America, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Mississippi Humanities Council.
For more information, contact Mona K. Vance, 662-329-5304 or email [email protected].
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