Back by popular demand, Sally Svenson will be reprising the Historic Saranac Lake presentation she gave more than two years ago on her book, "Blacks in the Adirondacks," published in 2017. This presentation will take place online, at 4:00PM on Thursday, February 25. We will open the meeting for questions and discussion following the presentation. Advance registration is required via this link.. You will receive an email with a link to the Zoom meeting the day before.
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Looking for Black History Month educational resources, programs, and events from all across New York State? The New York State Museum has great resources online, in addition to a list of events taking place at museums and historical societies. Check them out here.
This Tuberculosis Thursday, we want to highlight Bill Bailey! Bailey was a tap dancer and vaudevillian and brother of actress-singer Pearl Bailey. He came to Will Rogers Memorial Hospital to recover from a "respiratory ailment," possibly TB. The doctors wanted Bailey to rest, but he often entertained fellow patients with his dance skills.
Bailey is credited with inventing the Moonwalk, although he called it a "Backslide." Check out this video of Bailey dancing at the Apollo Theatre in 1955. He danced with Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Miles Davis. Learn more about Bailey on our wiki. Stay tuned for more Black History Month stories from Saranac Lake! Today marks the beginning of Black History Month, so stay tuned as we share stories of Black history in Saranac Lake all month long. If you would like to dig deeper into local Black history this month, we recommend you check out a copy of Sally E. Svenson's 2017 book, "Blacks in the Adirondacks." You can find copies of it at your local library, favorite bookstore, or you can order it online from us!
![]() As we return to sharing local history, we want to highlight some resources that HSL staff are using to inform our discussions and research on Black history in the Saranac Lake area. Sally Svenson's 2017 book, Blacks in the Adirondacks, highlights untold stories of Black individuals throughout the area, including TB Patients coming to Saranac Lake. Her book can be purchased from our museum store, or you can check your local library for a copy! The Adirondack Explorer reviewed Svenson's book in 2017, if you want to learn more. Other resources for Black history in the region: -Online exhibits/educational resources from the Adirondack History Museum, including "Dreaming of Timbuctoo" and "On the Trail of John Brown: What Mary Brown Saw" -Fulton Fryar's Closet at Seagle Music Colony. The "closet" can be seen at the Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake. -North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association. -John Brown Lives! Is there a resource we missed? Let us know in the comments. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture's work includes an Oral History Initiative chronicling the stories of African American history. Visit their website to listen to some stories from the initiative, including the Civil Rights History Project. The Museum worked with the The Library of Congress over five years to record the voices of activists in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s. Be sure to check out these important stories today!
Today we’re sharing this article from earlier this year, which offers an in-depth look at the work being done to preserve African-American historic sites. The article also addresses the complicated history of race and historic preservation.
“Since its founding, the N.H.P.A. has identified nearly two million locations worthy of preservation and has engaged tens of millions of Americans in the work of doing so. It has helped to generate an estimated two million jobs and more than a hundred billion dollars in private investments. But, because many biases were written into the criteria that determine how sites are selected, those benefits have gone mostly to white Americans. One of the criteria for preservation is architectural significance, meaning that modest buildings like slave cabins and tenement houses were long excluded from consideration. By the time preservationists took notice of structures like those, many lacked the physical integrity to merit protection. Destruction abetted decay, and some historically black neighborhoods were actively erased—deliberately targeted by arson in the years after Reconstruction or displaced in later decades by highway construction, gentrification, and urban renewal. While state and federal institutions were largely neglecting these areas, communities of color began protecting them on their own.” ![]() For our weekly Wednesday tour, we're sharing this interactive tour of Villa Lewaro in Irvington, New York. Villa Lewaro was home to Madam C.J. Walker, an American businesswoman, philanthropist, and activist. Walker made her fortune with a line of hair care products and cosmetics for black women, and was the first female self-made millionaire in America. This fascinating tour is narrated by Walker's great-great granddaughter, A'Lelia Bundles, and offers a rare behind-the-scenes view of this important property.Take the tour by clicking the button below! Thanks to the National Trust for Historic Preservation for sharing this tour as part of their Virtual Preservation Month series. To learn more about the National Trust's initiatives, including their African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, visit their website: www.savingplaces.org Today we want to share this helpful new resource created by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture to help individuals, families, and communities talk about racism and racial identity. The "Talking About Race" portal is free to access online, and includes digital tools, videos, scholarly articles, and over 100 multimedia resources.
Spencer Crew, the interim director of NMAAHC said, "Since opening the museum, the number one question we are asked is how to talk about race, especially with children. We recognize how difficult it is to start that conversation. But in a nation still struggling with the legacies of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and white supremacy, we must have these tough conversations if we have any hope of turning the page and healing. This new portal is a step in that direction." You can access the portal for free by clicking the button below. Dear friends,
In recognition of the national situation of protest following the death of George Floyd, we would like to share this statement from Lonnie G. Bunch, III, the Smithsonian's 14th Secretary and the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture: "It Is Time for America to Confront Its Tortured Racial Past.” This week, following the lead of other museums around the nation, instead of our usual local history programming, we will be sharing content from other historical organizations that amplify the voices and stories of African American and minority communities in history. We will be taking the time to step back and educate ourselves about the history of marginalized groups in the Saranac Lake region and think about ways that we can work to better present and document those stories. Thank you, Amy Catania Executive Director Historic Saranac Lake |
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