W. Miller Barbour: How an Elizabethtown College Graduate Helped Shape America’s Human Rights Story
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Join us on Friday, 11/20/2026, at 6PM at the Midtown Scholar to hear from award-winning biographer, public historian, and documentary filmmaker Jean-Paul Benowitz. He will share the story of a dynamic civil rights leader from Central Pennsylvania, who was nearly lost to history: William Wilbur Miller Barbour (1908-1957).
The evening will bring together two works. The first is Benowitz’s biography, William Wilbur Miller Barbour: A Faith Full Witness for Human Rights, recently published by Santos Books, and winner of two 2026 Storytrade Book Awards. The second is a companion documentary, The Prospect for Freedom: W. Miller Barbour’s Human Rights Journey, honored at the 2026 Susquehanna Film Festival.
“A book that speaks powerfully to our present moment in a dozen different ways.” (Tobin Shearer, Professor of History and Director of African American Studies, University of Montana)
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Jean-Paul Benowitz will open with a talk on Barbour’s life and the research behind the biography. We will then screen the final twenty minutes of The Prospect for Freedom.
A panel discussion and audience questions will conclude the evening. Benowitz will be joined by Mechelle Johnson-Reeves, an Elizabethtown College honors student and Stamps Scholar who helped create the film, and three of Barbour’s descendants: his granddaughters Deborah Neil and Renee Whitby and his great-grandson Paul Neil. The family members will travel from the Philadelphia area for the occasion.
This event is the closing program in the Midtown Scholar Bookstore’s America’s 250th Literary Celebrations Series and is proudly sponsored by the Historic Harrisburg Association, the Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission on African American Affairs, the NAACP Greater Harrisburg Branch, and the Elizabethtown College Office of Alumni Relations.
To RSVP, please click the following link, https://www.simpletix.com/e/the-prospect-for-freedom-an-american-human-tickets-300864
The evening will bring together two works. The first is Benowitz’s biography, William Wilbur Miller Barbour: A Faith Full Witness for Human Rights, recently published by Santos Books, and winner of two 2026 Storytrade Book Awards. The second is a companion documentary, The Prospect for Freedom: W. Miller Barbour’s Human Rights Journey, honored at the 2026 Susquehanna Film Festival.
“A book that speaks powerfully to our present moment in a dozen different ways.” (Tobin Shearer, Professor of History and Director of African American Studies, University of Montana)
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Jean-Paul Benowitz will open with a talk on Barbour’s life and the research behind the biography. We will then screen the final twenty minutes of The Prospect for Freedom.
A panel discussion and audience questions will conclude the evening. Benowitz will be joined by Mechelle Johnson-Reeves, an Elizabethtown College honors student and Stamps Scholar who helped create the film, and three of Barbour’s descendants: his granddaughters Deborah Neil and Renee Whitby and his great-grandson Paul Neil. The family members will travel from the Philadelphia area for the occasion.
This event is the closing program in the Midtown Scholar Bookstore’s America’s 250th Literary Celebrations Series and is proudly sponsored by the Historic Harrisburg Association, the Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission on African American Affairs, the NAACP Greater Harrisburg Branch, and the Elizabethtown College Office of Alumni Relations.
To RSVP, please click the following link, https://www.simpletix.com/e/the-prospect-for-freedom-an-american-human-tickets-300864
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Where is it happening?
Midtown Scholar Bookstore, 1302 N 3rd St,Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherHistoric Harrisburg Association
