’Ain’t Gon’ Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round' Black and White Women and the UGRR

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presented by

Marie Underhill Noll Professor of American History, Emerita, Cornell University

Professor Margaret Washington is the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of American History Emerita at Cornell University. She is a leading authority on the Black experience and recognized for her scholarship in African American history and culture; gender; and Southern history. Her many honors include:

· The Alice H. Cook and Constance E. Cook Award

· The Society for the Humanities Faculty Fellow Award, Cornell

· Senior Fellow at Wesleyan University Center for Humanities

· National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers

· The Sierra Prize from the West Coast Association of Women’s Historians

· The Letitia Woods Brown Award from the Association of Black Women Historians

· The Darlene Clark Hine Award from the Organization of American Historians

· Distinguished Alumni Award, from the California State University, Sacramento and the California State Legislature

Professor Washington’s career has included deep engagement in public history. She has served these bodies:

· New York State Humanities Council, board member

· The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, commissioner

· New York Council of the Humanities, board member

· John Brown Lives Board of New York State Parks and Recreation, consultant

· National Endowment for the Humanities Media, consultant

· The National Constitution Center, consultant

· The Smithsonian Museum, consultant

· The Climate Museum, consultant

· The International African American Museum, consultant

· The National Underground Network to Freedom, consultant

Professor Washington’s expertise on and off camera include consulting for PBS, PBS Kids, History Channel, and CNN. Her film appearances include CNN’s 2016 series “Race for the White House,” and the History Channel’s 2020 documentary “Black Patriots: Heroes of the Revolution,” which highlighted African American contributions in the founding of the United States.

Professor Washington played a pivotal role in lobbying for inclusion of an African American woman (Sojourner Truth) in the sculpture, “Women’s’ Rights Pioneers Monument”, which was erected in Central Park, New York, in 2020. It recognizes three leaders (Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth C. Stanton, and Sojourner Truth) in the movement for women’ suffrage and is the first statue in Central Park to honor actual women. Washington was also featured CNN’s film highlighting the lack of monuments honoring women. Their contributions often go unrecognized and unrepresented, and this is particularly true for women of color. The suffragists statue was an opportunity to partially rectify the oversight.

Professor Washington has published extensively on Black women, Southern history, women’s rights, and Harriet Tubman. She has written the definitive, prize-winning biography on Sojourner Truth — Sojourner Truth’s America, as well as edited and annotated The Narrative of Sojourner Truth. Professor Washington is also a specialist on Gullah Geechee culture. She has authored the award-winning “A Peculiar People”: Slave Religion and Community Culture among the Gullahs. Currently, Professor Washington is writing, a book tentatively entitled, “Thine for the Oppressed”: Black and White Women Activists in the Age of Emancipation.”

Friends of Fort Negley Park and Metro Parks present Path to Freedom, an annual free public lecture in celebration of International Underground Railroad Month. In 2020 Fort Negley Park joined the National Parks Service program National Underground Railroad Network To Freedom. This program honors, preserves and promotes the history of resistance to enslavement through escape and flight. Explore over 700 Network to Freedom sites at NPS.gov.

Host or Publisher Friends of Fort Negley Park