VCU Alexandrian Society Hosts Emancipation Proclamation Lecture

By Mike Porter

The Alexandrian Society of the Department of History at Virginia Commonwealth University will host a guest lecturer who will discuss the Emancipation Proclamation and its impact on African Americans.

“A Determined Revolution: African Americans Respond to the Emancipation Proclamation,” a lecture by Howard University History Department Professor and Chair Edna Medford,  will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 9, beginning at 4 p.m. at the Virginia Commonwealth University Student Commons Theater, 907 Floyd Ave. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Medford will discuss the influence and impact of the proclamation upon African Americans and will explore how enslaved African Americans learned of their freedom, what they did to secure it and how they thought of Lincoln after emancipation was granted. The lecture will place African Americans, the people most affected by Lincoln’s edict, at the center of this important instance in history.

Medford has served as the director for history of New York's African Burial Ground Project since 1996 and has co-authored various works, including “The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views,” “The Price of Freedom: Slavery and the Civil War - Volume I” and “The Price of Freedom: Slavery and the Civil War - Volume II.”

The lecture is presented by the Alexandrian Society of the VCU Department of History and is co-sponsored by VCU’s African American Studies Department and supported by the Black Caucus at VCU.

For more information, contact Dennis Williams at 404-375-9525 or alexsociety@vcu.edu or visit http://www.has.vcu.edu/his/.