Press Release
June 30, 2016

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National Archives Presents "Shared Legacies: Honoring the Black-Jewish Civil Rights Alliance" on July 21

Program features a reading by actor Louis Gossett, Jr.

Washington, DC…On Thursday, July 21, 2016, at 7 p.m., the National Archives will present a panel discussion of "Shared Legacies: Honoring the Black-Jewish Civil Rights Alliance," which will also feature a special reading by Academy Award®-winning actor Louis Gossett, Jr.

Deborah Lauter, director of civil rights for the Anti-Defamation League, will moderate the panel, which will focus on the historic connection between African American and Jewish communities. Panelists include C.T. Vivian, Civil Rights icon and winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom; Clarence B. Jones, an advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Rabbi Israel Dresner, the foremost rabbinic participant in the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s; and Susannah Heschel,the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. Following the discussion, there will be a short musical performance featuring Yvette Spears and the Robyn Helzner Trio.

The program is free and open to the public. You can reserve your seat online or visit National Archives YouTube channel to watch a live stream.

The program will be held in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives Museum in the National Archives Building, located at Constitution Ave. and 7th Street, NW, in Washington, DC. Metro accessible on the Yellow and Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter station. Attendees should enter through the Special Events entrance.

The event is presented in partnership with the 2016 March on Washington Film Festival, a production of The Raben Group

National Archives Holds Free Records Programs in July and August

Press Release
June 29, 2016

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Washington, DC…This summer, the National Archives holds research and genealogy programs highlighting records from its holdings. These programs are free and open to the public, and will be held at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, which is located on the National Mall and is fully accessible. For programs in the McGowan Theater, please use the Special Events entrance on Constitution Avenue at 7th Street, NW. For programs in the Research Center, please use the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance, between 7th and 9th Streets, NW. The building is Metro accessible on the Yellow and Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter Station.

The August 11 program will be live streamed on the US National Archives Know Your Records playlist on YouTube. Presentation materials will be available online.

Black Sailors and Citizenship in the Era of the Gag Rule
Thursday, July 14, at noon, Room G-25, Research Center (Penn. Ave. Entrance)
Kate Masur, professor at Northwestern University, will discuss race, rights, and citizenship between the 1820s and the Civil War and her book project, "Police Powers, the Anti-Slavery Movement, and the Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment."

DC Emancipation Act
Thursday, August 11, at 2 p.m., William G. McGowan Theater & YouTube (Constitution Ave. entrance)
In 1862, the DC Emancipation Act freed enslaved persons in the District of Columbia. Damani Davis, archivist, discusses petitions filed by owners and slaves under the Act.

FREE RECORDS TALKS ON YOUTUBE 
Know Your Records has made available online extensive videos, handouts, and presentations from our live programs. Learn how to do research at the National Archives using Federal holdings including census, immigration, and military service, and pension records. See the Know Your Records playlist.

SAVE THE DATE - Virtual Genealogy Fair October 26 and 27, 2016 
Join us for the annual National Archives virtual Genealogy Fair via webcast on YouTube, October 26 and 27, 2016. Speakers include genealogy experts from National Archives locations across the nation. Revisit last year's popular event online. Video recordings and handouts for all ten sessions are available.

"A prudent man ... hides himself."

“A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, But the simple pass on and are punished.” —Prov. 22:3

This verse was part of my devotions this morning and brought a unique memory to mind.

Proverbs is a book intended to bring people out of folly to wise action. Many years ago we were seated with a small group in a Denny’s. Next to me was a man we had recently had the privilege of leading to the Lord from a life of folly. The conversation was light and enjoyable until something unexpected broke the mood. This new convert suddenly dived under the table! "What on earth are you doing?" I asked.

"Tell me when those guys that just came in are out of sight," he whispered.

I waited till the group was led to another part of the restaurant. Our new Christian cautiously peeked over the table top, then slowly raised himself back into position. We left soon after this.

This was one of the wisest acts I have ever seen from a baby Christian. "Those guys" were some of his old partners in sin. He wasn't ready to face them; he was afraid he would be drawn back into his old lifestyle. Some might say this was a lost opportunity, but the time would come when he could face them and share his testimony. This day wasn't it.

And the memory of a new believer diving under a table in a restaurant remains etched in my mind as the personification of Proverbs 22:3, “A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself."

Book Review: The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport by Christy K Robinson

A Delightful Companion to the Fiction Books

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport is the third in the compelling trilogy of Dyer books by author/editor Christy K Robinson. The first two are fiction. If you are a historian, you may at first think you want only the nonfiction book. That’s what I thought at first also. I love history and seldom read fiction, but I took the leap on these because I had learned in recent years that I am descended from William and Mary Dyer.  I thoroughly enjoyed the two fiction books. Based firmly on history, they will enrich your understanding of this important time period in American history.

With the nonfiction book, you get to know the Dyers … and their heritage. If you have found them in your family tree you will enjoy a veritable feast of information about your ancestors. And if you're not related to them, you will still be fascinated by this lively, entertaining, yet historically accurate book.

William and Mary Dyer were the Dyers of London. They were married at St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in Westminster, London, on October 27, 1633.

A well-to-do couple, they left England for the colonies, landing in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 in the midst of the Great Migration of Puritans fleeing religious persecution and corruption in their homeland. They both made amazing contributions to the New World, impacting the realms of religion and politics. They helped found Portsmouth and Newport, Rhode Island. And Mary has a prominent statue today at the Boston Statehouse.

William was the first Commander-in-Chief-Upon-the-Seas in the Colonies. And … well you just need to read the book. They were one of America’s first power couples.

The lynchpin of the Dyer history is Mary’s singular impact on the Colonies and on this nation’s freedoms … of speech and of religion. She paid the ultimate price, dying on the gallows at the hands of a bigoted and corrupt Puritan political hierarchy … and in her death, changed the world of then, and of today.

Written in numerous brief topical chapters, the book never bogs the reader down, providing instead a steady relevant variety told in crisp, entertaining prose. I have placed the book where few have the privilege of resting—on my regular reference shelf.

Go inside the world of William and Mary Dyer. Learn the big things, and a lot of the interesting small things, that made up their unique and colorful lives and times.

All three books are available on Amazon.

Red-tailed Hawk on a Hay Bale

A block away from our house.