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  • A Hard Road to Freedom
     November 14, 2019
     3:15 pm - 4:30 pm

A Hard Road to Freedom:  The Civil War, African Americans and Emancipation

The story of how the end of slavery came to Maryland

Adults Only.

Mr CR Gibbs is the author/co-author of six books and a frequent national and international lecturer on an array of historical topics. He has appeared several times on the History Channel and French and Belgian television. He wrote, researched, and narrated “Sketches in Color,” for WHUT-TV, a 13-part companion series to the acclaimed PBS series, “The Civil War.” He has appeared on BET, C-Span, and The History Channel and is a D.C. Community Humanities Council Scholar.

In 1997, he led 26 people across the African continent. He won the 2008 Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation in Public Education, given annually by the Mayor of the District of Columbia. In 2009, the Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust honored Gibbs for his more than three decades of articles, exhibits, and presentations on the military heritage of Africans and African Americans. In 2011, he provided historical commentary for WUSA-TV, Channel 9’s coverage of the dedication of the King Memorial. In February 2013, he also appeared in the PBS documentary, “Meet Me at Equality” on the 1963 March on Washington. That same year, Gibbs also spoke at the annual observance of International Emancipation Day in Toronto, Canada. In 2014, the National Civil War Project featured Gibbs as a speaker at an event sponsored by Arena Stage and George Washington University. Also in 2014, the Washington Informer newspaper chose Gibbs as one of the 50 most influential people in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Gibbs is also an honorary paramount chief of the Vai people of Liberia, West Africa. Mr. Gibbs returned recently from leading 26 people on a transcontinental crossing of Africa, from South to North. The nearly 5,000 mile journey included study stops in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya and Egypt. He Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture features Mr. Gibbs among its scholars at the museum’s Online Academy.  He is a graduate of Howard University.