For the first time during World War II, African-American women were allowed to enter the military. The first contingent trained in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, where they were housed in segregated barracks, ate at separate dining tables, and used segregated recreational facilities. Despite the hardships and discrimination, the women persevered and thirty-six of the original group graduated and were assigned to Officers Candidate School, Cooks and Bakers School, the Transportation Pool, or the Clerical School. A lecture by Janet Sims-Wood discusses the courageous example set by the first African-American WAC unit in Europe.

Fighting for Freedom:  Black WACs During WWII

Dr. Janet Sims-Wood 

July 15, 2008

The African-American Experience in the CCC

Dr. Olen Cole

May 20, 2008

Greenbelt, MD

Reston, VA

Columbia , MD

The Art of Jacob Lawrence

Dr. Leslie King-Hammond

November 18, 2008

Lakeland Maryland

September 16, 2008

 

Living Legacy of the New Deal

Greenbelt Museum

Bi-Monthly Lecture Series

The film, “New Towns” was produced in 1987 by WETA and compares and contrasts Greenbelt, Columbia MD and Reston VA.  Twenty years later all three communities have changed and developed in different ways.  Highlights include interviews with pioneering residents of all three communities and Robert Simon the founder of Reston.  Following the viewing museum staff will lead a discussion of the film.

Here is a synopsis of the lecture by one of our attendees.

http://columbiacompass.blogspot.com

Between 1933 and 1942, nearly 200,000 young African Americans participated in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), one of Roosevelt’s most successful New Deal agencies. In an effort to correct the lack of historical attention paid to the African-American contribution to the CCC, Cole examines the contributions of African Americans to the CCC as well as its impact on its African-American participants.

The Greenbelt Museum sponsors a free  bi-monthly lecture series in the Greenbelt Community Center. Topics focus on the period of the Great Depression to World War II and deal with history, material culture, social studies and art history.

Third Tuesday Every Other Month 7:30pm Multipurpose Room, 201 Greenbelt Community Center 15 Crescent Road Greenbelt MD 20770

Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson examines the complexity of black women's legacies with food as a form of cultural work. While acknowledging the negative interpretations of black culture associated with chicken imagery, Williams-Forson focuses her analysis on the ways black women have forged their own self-definitions and relationships to "the gospel bird."

New Towns

January 15, 2008

Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs

Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson

March 18, 2008

Contact person: Jill St. John

301.507.6582

museum@greenbeltmd.gov