Past is Prologue
Clint Schemmer writes about history, heritage preservation and the American Civil War. On Facebook: Past is Prologue On Twitter: @prologuepast Contact: Email Clint or call 540/374-5424.
Panelists tackle ‘Civil War to Civil Rights’ Saturday in Spotsylvania
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Artist Johnny Johnson (left) instructs art student Maria Duke in technique in his Fredericksburg studio, where he paints and gives individual lessons. (FILE/REBECCA SELL/THE FREE LANCE-STAR)
It’s also the title of a local, first-of-its-kind panel discussion to be held Saturday at the John J. Wright Museum near Spotsylvania Courthouse.
Fredericksburg-area artist Johnny P. Johnson and historians John Hennessy, Horace McCaskill and James S. Price will explore events and issues from the nation’s bloodiest conflict through Reconstruction and Jim Crow to the civil rights movement and our own era, drawing on their individual perspectives.
Details on the life of 19th-century lawmaker John Mercer Langston, a Louisa County native, are displayed as visitors tour the John J. Wright Museum exhibit ‘Emancipating their Homeland: Spotsylvania-born U.S. Colored Troops’ in 2011. (REZA A. MARVASHTI THE FREE LANCE-STAR)
The special event, cosponsored by the museum and Germanna Community College, is part of the 23rd Regiment, United States Colored Troops Lecture Series, at the John J. Wright Educational & Cultural Center–the regiment’s home.
The free program will be held from noon to 3 p.m. at 7565 Court House Road, 3.2 miles south of Spotsylvania Courthouse.
For details, call 540/582-7583 or visit the museum’s website, jjwmuseum.org. Or email 23usct@jjwmuseum.org.
The John J. Wright Educational Center’s mission is ‘to celebrate Spotsylvania by collaborating with like-minded individuals and organizations to collect, archive, share and facilitate learning about the interactive history of education, culture and civic life of the county’s African American citizens. In so doing, we demonstrate how those interactions within the wider population contributed to the richness of Spotsylvania County’s development.’
