African-American History Celebrated at Virginia Festival
of the Book
Dr. Deborah Lee Discusses Honoring Their Paths: African American Contributions
Along the Journey Through Hallowed Ground
For Immediate Release
March 12, 2010
Reach our press contact
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA —A new book shining a light on the African-American
experience from Colonial times to the present in the most historic region in
the nation is being featured at the 2010 Virginia Festival of the Book. Honoring
Their Paths: African American Contributions Along the Journey Through Hallowed
Ground and its author Dr. Deborah Lee will speak to this work at the
UVA Bookstore on Wednesday, March 17 at 8pm.
Honoring Their Paths: African American Contributions Along the Journey
Through Hallowed Ground depicts the realities of
slave life, stories of people who risked everything to escape and navigate
the Underground Railroad to freedom, lives of freed slaves after emancipation
and their struggle for survival and equality.
It is a 248-page book of 100 compelling stories that was produced
with the keen insight and expertise of 34 historians and academicians. It
includes fifteen easy-to-use maps, fascinating profiles as well as archival
images depicting many of the indelible contributions made by African Americans
who lived within the four-state Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage
Area which runs from Gettysburg, PA to Monticello, VA.
Robert K. Sutton, PhD, Chief Historian for the National Park Service said, “After
three years of extensive research, this remarkable book brings to the public
a rich and complex component of our American narrative by looking beyond the
bricks and mortar of historic sites to the people who—through courage,
creativity and conviction—helped shape our nation.”
Dr. Lee will be joined by fellow author Betty DeRamus for a program called African-American
Paths to Freedom, which will be moderated by Theodore DeLaney.
“Generation after generation, the people of this amazing region have
been called upon to define what it means to be an American,” said Cate
Magennis Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership. “Yet
we found many of these extraordinary stories were untold. Accordingly,
we sought and fortunately secured funding to ensure we had the finest scholars
and the most dedicated team to more fully uncover this history”
Dr. Lee, explained that, “Understanding the African American experience
lends new dimensions to the phrase ‘hallowed ground.’ We
owe gratitude to the many African Americans, famous and anonymous, who have
enriched our world in so many ways. Through their lives and work, their
struggles and achievements, they hallowed this ground. Through this project,
and through visits to the places they knew, we seek to honor their paths.”
The Virginia Festival of the Book is the largest gathering of authors, writers,
and readers in the Mid-Atlantic region. It is presented in a unique partnership
of contributors that
includes the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, bookstores, schools, libraries,
area businesses and organizations, and committed individuals.
Honoring Their Paths: African American Contributions Along the
Journey Through Hallowed Ground is published by the Journey
Through Hallowed Ground Partnership and has been made possible by the Virginia
Foundation for the Humanities, Pennsylvania Museum and Historical Commission,
Loudoun Preservation and Restoration Society, the Virginia Department of
Historic Resources and individual contributions. The bookretails
for $20.
Starting in Charlottesville, running north through Greene, Orange, Madison,
Culpeper, Prince William Loudoun, into Frederick, MD, through Harpers Ferry,
WV and ending in Gettysburg, no other place in this nation is more saturated
with American history than this one.
With 400 years of European, American and African-American heritage, the Journey
Through Hallowed Ground is a National Heritage Area with a National Scenic
Byway running through it. Known as the region Where America Happened,
it includes: National and World Heritage sites, over 10,000 sites on the National
Register of Historic Places, 49 National Heritage districts, nine Presidential
homes, 13 National Park units, hundreds of African American and Native American
heritage sites, 30 Historic Main Street communities, sites from the Revolutionary
War, French-Indian War, War of 1812 and the largest collection of Civil War
sites in the nation.
Details for the presentation are as follows:
WHEN: Thursday, March 17th at
8:00 pm
WHERE: UVA Bookstore on The Corner,
400 Emmet Street S. Charlottesville, VA
PARKING: UVA Central Grounds Parking Garage
DETAILS: call (434) 924-3721 or go to: http://www.vabook.org/site10/program/details.php?eventID=165
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