New Historic Marker Dedication, Free Film Screening, and 18th Annual Conference
PORTSMOUTH, NH Sept 11, 2024 — The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire (BHTNH) is pleased to announce its lineup of upcoming events taking place in Manchester through early October.
September 21 at 10 am - Millyard Museum, Historic Marker Unveiling
Working in collaboration with the Manchester Historical Association, the Black Heritage Trail is unveiling a new historic marker recognizing and honoring enslaved peoples’ contributions to Manchester’s textile industry. With over two dozen historic markers across the Granite State, this will be the first BHTNH marker to be unveiled in Manchester.
The location of the marker and dedication ceremony at the Millyard Museum at 200 Bedford St. is the site of a three-story picker house where bales of raw cotton were delivered and mill workers separated the cotton fibers from stems and sticks. This was one of the first places the cotton was handled once it arrived from the south.
According to the Manchester Historic Association, “Prior to the Civil War, the majority of the cotton used to manufacture cloth at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester was purchased from southern sources where it was grown and picked on cotton plantations by enslaved people. In 1859, Amoskeag purchased an average of 5,000 bales of cotton per week for its textile production. The cotton was received from cities including Mobile, Alabama; Galveston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Apalachicola, Florida.”
This event is free to the public with no registration required.
For more information: https://blackheritagetrailnh.org/markers/
October 4 at 6 pm - Currier Museum of Art, Free Film Screening of ‘RUSTIN’
The BHTNH will be at the Currier Museum of Art offering a free, public film screening of ‘RUSTIN’ followed by a moderated group discussion led by Lowell (Chris) Matthews, Professor of Business Administration and Management and Southern NH University (SNHU).
The film screening of RUSTIN is an event open to the public the evening before the BHTNH kicks off its 18th Annual Black New England Conference. The film, first released in 2023, was produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground and tells the story of gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.
Rustin, unknown by most, was the person who orchestrated the 1963 March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his ‘I Have a Dream Speech’. This film shows how Rustin made the impossible happen all while fighting homophobia.
While free to the public, seats will be reserved through pre-registration online at: https://tinyurl.com/yc8aac9y
This event sponsored in part by the Currier Museum of Art.
October 5 from 8 am - 4 pm - SNHU Hosts the 18th Annual Black New England Conference
The 18th Annual Black New England Conference ‘LIVING OUT LOUD: Embracing the Intersectionality of Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation’ will be hosted by Southern NH University on October 5th. The one-day conference will feature a Keynote Conversation with Tiq Milan, a sought-after host and strategic media consultant. He has moderated conversations about LGBT representation in media for HBO’s Newfest Film Festival, The Toronto Film Festival, LOGO, and MTV. There will also be 3 interactive, moderated panels at this year’s conference and the BHTNH will recognize its Citizen of the Year.
Conference participants may attend the conference in-person at SNHU or virtually. Full conference details and registration options are online: https://blackheritagetrailnh.org/black-new-england-conference-2024/ .
