MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — Penn State Harrisburg’s Diversity and Educational Equity Committee (DEEC) will host a screening of a locally produced film titled "African American Oral History Project: Part One," from 11:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16, in the Olmsted Building auditorium on campus.
The film, produced for the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg and narrated by TV journalist and Harrisburg citizen Bryan Wade, traces the extraordinary lives and descendants of former slaves, Civil War heroes and community leaders Ephraim Slaughter (1846-1943) and Robert Smalls (1839-1915) and freedman, writer and educator George H. Imes (1844-1892).
The film traces the history of each family from Slavery through the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, the Great Depression and the modern Civil Rights era, providing a century and half narrative of African-American history nationally and in Pennsylvania’s capital city of Harrisburg.
The film was produced by Ruby Doub, Dauphin County; written and directed by Robert Philbin, Cumberland County; and features national historian Hari Jones, Washington, D.C., and local historian Calobe Jackson.
Doub, Philbin, Jackson and Wade will be in attendance at the screening. Slavery artifacts will also be on display.
The mission of the Penn State Harrisburg Diversity and Educational Equity Committee is to create and engage in activities cultivating a safe and supportive campus community that values diversity and fosters good citizenship. The committee strives to improve communication and encourage respect within its interdependent campus communities by enhancing the development of relationship skills and providing opportunities to share experiences and diverse perspectives among members of the college community.