WORCESTER, Mass. – The College of the Holy Cross will host “Bondage and Belonging in Black Worcester,” a celebration of Worcester slave narratives, local African American authors, and Worcester’s black history, on Saturday, April 26 from 8:45 a.m. – 5 p.m. in Rehm Library. The event is free and open to the public.
The program is based on the book, From Bondage to Belonging: The Worcester Slave Narratives, (University of Massachusetts Press 2008) edited by B. Eugene McCarthy, professor emeritus of English at Holy Cross, and Thomas L. Doughton, senior lecturer at the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies at Holy Cross. The book is a collection of autobiographies that tell the gripping stories of eight ex-slaves, who settled in the Worcester area.
Schedule of events:
8:45 - 9 a.m. Welcome: coffee & light refreshments
9:20 a.m. “Worcester’s Historical Black Community” by Thomas L. Doughton, senior lecturer at the Center for Interdisciplinary & Special Studies at Holy Cross.
10 a.m. William Coleman, community activist, will read from Isaac Mason (slave narrative).
10:15 a.m. “Worcester Slave Narratives” by B. Eugene McCarthy, professor emeritus of English at Holy Cross.
10:50 a.m. Rev. Richard Wright, a pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church, will read from Jacob Stroyer (slave narrative).
11 a.m. “Former Slaves from North Carolina: The Worcester/New Bern Connection” by Janette T. Greenwood, associate professor of history at Clark University.
11:30 a.m. Men of Zion gospel performance
12 p.m. Lunch break, review displays, purchase books at bookstore display.
1 p.m. Introduction afternoon events
1:10 p.m. “Laboring in the Vineyards of the Lord: Worcester’s African American Clergymen & Their Congregations 1845-1900” by Doughton.
1:45 p.m. Rev. Catherine Reed, assistant chaplain at Holy Cross, will read from Bethany Veney. (slave narrative)
2 p.m. “Encoding Resistance in Veney’s Narrative and African American Women’s Poetry” by Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, associate professor of English at Holy Cross.
2:30 p.m.William Hawley, Sr., from the Worcester African American Seniors Group, will read from Allen Parker (slave narrative).
2:45 p.m. “George Washington Williams, Nineteenth-Century Black Historian at Worcester” by Edmund A. Schofield, a historian and independent scholar.
3:30 p.m. Moderated panel discussion with local contemporary authors of family histories/ autobiographies: Shirley F. B. Carter, author of Colored Of Course (2007), Edna Spencer, director of diversity at Worcester State College and Doughton.
4:15 p.m. “Tea with the Rich Sisters,” two 19th-century African American residents of Worcester, as interpreted by Mary Collins, independent scholar and re-enactor, and Carter.
The event is sponsored by the Africana studies concentration, the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies, Office of the College President, history department, Office of Grants and Corporate and Foundation Giving, English department and the Donelan Office of Community-Based Learning. The program is in conjunction with the Charles E. Scott Community Fund of Greater Worcester Community Foundation.
