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Historic Harrisburg Association presents free webinar on the Underground Railroad in Harrisburg
Maria M. Shea, Contributing Writer//February 18, 2021//
Historic Harrisburg Association presents free webinar on the Underground Railroad in Harrisburg
Three local historians collaborated for a free educational webinar, “The Underground Railroad in Harrisburg,” to be presented by the Historic Harrisburg Association.
The Black History Month program will be offered by Zoom at 6 p.m. Feb. 22. To access the Zoom link, visit the HHA website at www.historicharrisburg.org. Sponsored by the Foundation for Enhancing Communities, the event is part of the association’s long-standing Fourth Monday educational series.
These local historians will participate in the program:
- Barbara Barksdale, president of the Friends of Midland Cemetery, the midstate’s oldest known African-American cemetery and interment site of former slaves, Civil War veterans known as the United States Colored Troops, and generations of community leaders.
- Calobe Jackson, longtime community leader, historian and author, who was honored at age 90 by Historic Harrisburg for his lifetime of community service. Jackson was key in planning and creating Harrisburg’s first monument to African-American heritage, the Commonwealth Monument in Irvis Equality Circle at the Capitol Complex.
- Norman Kelker, scion of one of Harrisburg’s oldest families, whose ancestor Rudolph Frederick Kelker, was a leading abolitionist and operator of a “station” on the Underground Railroad in the Kelker family’s stables, at Barbara and River Streets, a few blocks from the Capitol. Kelker Street in Uptown Harrisburg is named for his family.
Feb. 22 also marks the 48th anniversary of the founding of the association, which recently launched a
“mini anniversary campaign,” to benefit the Midland Cemetery and the Commonwealth Monument, two important landmarks of Harrisburg’s African-American heritage. Contributions can be made on the Historic Harrisburg Association website.
Both the Zoom program and anniversary campaign are funded in part by underwriting from the Foundation for Enhancing Communities, a Harrisburg-based community foundation, whose sponsorship will also support African-American history and preservation programming from HHA throughout the year.
