LYNN โ Massachusetts Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler headlines a distinguished group of scholars and social-justice advocates who will come together in Lynn on Wednesday, Oct. 4, for Defending Democracy. The free public forum will address current threats to civil liberties including the assault on voting rights, economic inequality, book banning, and efforts to eliminate or marginalize Black history.
Tutwiler, the former Lynn school superintendent, is a featured speaker along with Dr. Martin Garnar, director of the Amherst College Library and a past president of the Freedom To Read Foundation.
Defending Democracy will be held at 6 p.m. in the Lynn City Hall auditorium. The forum is co-sponsored by the Grand Army of the Republic Museum and Lynn Museum/Lynn Arts.
This program is for students as well as adults. Held on the 160th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the evening will include a “living history interlude” featuring actors portraying President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, the former Lynn resident and escaped slave who became a friend and advisor to the president. The Lincoln impersonator will deliver the Gettysburg Address.
Billy Keyserling, the former mayor of Beaufort, S.C., is the evening’s special guest. He was a driving force behind the creation of the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park in Beaufort, established by President Barack Obama in 2017 to commemorate the tumultuous period in American history following the Civil War.
Among the featured speakers is Dr. Kabria Baumgartner of Northeastern University, associate professor of history and Africana Studies. She is the award-winning author of a book about Black girls and women who fought for their educational rights in the 19th century.
One of the prime movers behind this event is Steve Matthews, a Lynn native and labor activist whose search for his mother’s Southern roots led to the discovery of a family legacy of slave-holding. He chronicled his journey of self-discovery in “Finding Mary,” a 10-part series that ran in The Daily Item.
Panelists also include Nicole McClain, the first African-American woman to sit on the Lynn City Council and founder and president of the North Shore Juneteenth Association; Adriana Paz, founder of North Shore’s Women of Color Association and other racial-justice organizations; Jeff Crosby, a former GE union official who helped bring together labor and community groups to form the New Lynn Coalition; and Rev. Andre Bennett, president of the Essex County Community Organization, an affiliation of 39 religious congregations and the North Shore Labor Council.
Defending Democracy programs are also scheduled for the morning of Oct. 4. At 10 a.m., the Douglass impersonator will join Dexter Bishop of the Sons of Union Veterans for a memorial service at the GAR lot in Pine Grove Cemetery, followed by a tour of abolitionist graves led by Julia Greene, an adjunct professor at North Shore Community College.
All of the Defending Democracy programs are free and open to the public.
“This event is made possible by the deep connection and respectful relationship between these dedicated community and social justice organizations and the leadership of Doneeca Thurston at the Lynn Museum and Wendy Joseph at the Grand Army of the Republic Museum, which are both treasured repositories of Lynn’s history,” Matthews said.