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Thur. 9/19 5:30 pm- 8 pm

Thursday, Sept. 19. Head down the rabbit hole into the wild history of political campaigning across the decades with games, drinks and fun activities.

Jon Grinspan, curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, is the special guest at Campaign Madness. This GHM After Hours event also features fun, games and adult beverages for sale as guests go down the rabbit hole to explore the wild history of political campaigning across the decades.

Grinspan will be discussing his new book Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force That Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War. The book is a propulsive account of American history’s most surprising, most consequential political club: the Wide Awake anti-slavery youth movement that marched America from the 1860 election to civil war. Publishers Weekly calls Wide Awake “an insightful and moving analysis of how America descended into civil war.”

Doors open at 5:30 pm with a cash bar, democracy games, and a scavenger hunt in the museum exhibitions. The conversation with Jon Grinspan starts at 6:30 pm with book signing to follow. Copies will be available for purchase from Scuppernong Books.

Free and open to the public.

Jon Grinspan is Curator of Political History at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. He is the author of the award-winning The Virgin Vote: How Young Americans Made Democracy Social, Politics Personal, and Voting Popular in the 19th Century. He frequently contributes to the New York Times, and has been featured in The New Yorker, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. He lives in Washington, D.C.

MORE ABOUT THE BOOK

At the start of the 1860 presidential campaign, a handful of fired-up young Northerners appeared as bodyguards to defend anti-slavery stump speakers from frequent attacks. The group called themselves the Wide Awakes. Soon, hundreds of thousands of young White and Black men, and a number of women, were organizing boisterous, uniformed, torch-bearing brigades of their own. These Wide Awakes–mostly working-class Americans in their twenties–became one of the largest, most spectacular, and most influential political movements in our history. To some, it demonstrated the power of a rising majority to push back against slavery. To others, it looked like a paramilitary force training to invade the South. Within a year, the nation would be at war with itself, and many on both sides would point to the Wide Awakes as the mechanism that got them there.

In this gripping narrative, Smithsonian historian Jon Grinspan examines how exactly our nation crossed the threshold from a political campaign into a war. Perfect for readers of Lincoln on the Verge and TheField of Blood, Wide Awake bears witness to the power of protest, the fight for majority rule, and the defense of free speech. At its core, Wide Awake illuminates a question American democracy keeps posing, about the precarious relationship between violent speech and violent actions.

Historian, author, and filmmaker Malinda Maynor Lowery on “The Lumbees’ Long Fight to Reimagine Democracy.”

Malinda Maynor Lowery is a historian and documentary film producer who is a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. In July 2021 she joined Emory University as the Cahoon Family Professor of American History, after spending 12 years at UNC-Chapel Hill and 4 years at Harvard University. Her second book, The Lumbee Indians: An American Struggle, was published by UNC Press in 2018. Lowery has also published essays in the New York Times, Oxford American, and Daily Yonder. She produced the Peabody Award-winning A Chef’s Life (PBS, 2013-2018) and Somewhere South (PBS, 2020), and other award-winning programs, as well as Sundance Film Festival entries Real Indian (1996) and Sounds of Faith (1997). Lumbeeland, her latest short film project, is scheduled for release in 2024. Learn more about her work at https://www.malindalowery.com/

Exhibit on view now

Also participating in the program are Jennifer Revels Baxter, Executive Director of Guilford Native American Association (GNAA), the state’s first urban Indian organization; Dr. Greg O’Brien, chair of the Department of History at UNC Greensboro and co-editor of The Native South: New Histories and Enduring Legacies (University of Nebraska Press, 2017); Nora Dial-Stanley, Chair of the GNAA Board of Directors; and Stephen Bell, American Indian Education coordinator for Guilford County Schools. Scuppernong Books will have copies of The Lumbee Indians available for purchase and signing after the talk.

Free program.  Presented in partnership with Guilford Native American Association and UNC Greensboro Department of History.

The John Floy Wicker Endowment supports Greensboro History Museum’s public programming with an annual event. Wicker was a Greensboro architect whose works include Friendly Shopping Center and Page High School.

Sat. 7/6 11 am-4 pm

Did you know that the Gate City was home to the largest urban military base in the country during World War II? Enjoy an afternoon of family fun exploring life in Greensboro in the 1940s with reenactors, music, games, activities, vintage vehicles, ration book bake-off contest, and more. Free!

Don’t miss…

Free event!

But wait, there’s more…

Free swing dance lessons with instructors from the Cat’s Pajamas in LeBauer Park, 4-5:30 pm

GHM After Hours: Swing Dance at the Service Club, 6-9 pm, with live music from Dexter Moses Quintet featuring vocalist Lillian Faith, inspired cocktails for sale from GIA, costume contest & more. Tickets on sale now!

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Sponsors

Thanks to our After Hours Big Band Sponsor, Bibey Machine Company. Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Click below to learn more.

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GHM is thrilled to co-sponsor a program exploring the growing influence of independent voters with experts from across the country organized by UNCG Lloyd International Honors College next Tuesday, September 12 at 6 pm in the Elliott University Center Auditorium.

Free admission!

Celebrated historian Fergus M. Bordewich discusses his new book KLAN WAR: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction at the Greensboro History Museum for the annual Dortch series. Panel discussion with UNC Greensboro professors Mark Elliott and Deborah H. Barnes follows.

Free event. Books for sale from Scuppernong Books.

Bordewich is the author of eight previous nonfiction books including Congress at War, The First Congress, and America’s Great Debate. In Klan War, he looks at the rise of the white supremacist terrorist organization immediately following the Civil War and the battles undertaken at federal and state levels to combat horrific acts against newly emancipated Black Americans and their white allies, including in North Carolina.

Joining Bordewich for the panel discussion will be Dr. Mark Elliott, Professor of History at UNCG and author of Color-Blind Justice: Albion Tourgée and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson. Also on the panel is Dr. Deborah Barnes, Visiting Lecturer in UNCG’s African American & African Diaspora Studies Program and member of the steering committee for the Guilford County Community Remembrance Project. Greensboro History Museum Curator of Collections Ayla Amon will moderate.

This program is made possible by the museum’s Dortch Memorial Endowment, created in memory of John Johnson Dortch (1930-1984) by the attorneys and staff of his law firm, now Fox Rothschild LLP. It is in support of the History Museum’s award-winning exhibition NC Democracy: Eleven Elections, which explores the election of 1868 and ten other contests that shaped what democracy means in our state today.

Two award-winning authors discuss witnessing history, and how writing about Black stories can explore the hopes and challenges of American democracy. David Wright Faladé, author and filmmaker about North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and Wake Forest University professor and author Phoebe Zerwick will be in conversation at the Greensboro History Museum on Thursday, June 15 at 6 pm as part of the By the Book Series.

Faladé’s novel, Black Cloud Rising, features the experiences of the Union army’s African Brigade in northeast North Carolina during the Civil War.  He also wrote the narrative history, Fire on The Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers, and the screenplay for the documentary, Rescue Men: The Story of the Pea Island Lifesavers, about the nation’s first and only all-black Coast Guard crew.

Black Cloud Rising was selected by the New York Times and the New Yorker as one of the Best Books of 2022. His first book, Fire on the Beach, was one of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Best Books of 2001. His second, Away Running, was named an Outstanding International Book by the US Board on Books for Young People. Charles Frazier, National Book Award-winning author of Cold Mountain, praised Black Cloud Rising for breathing “life into a revolutionary moment when the US moved a vital step forward toward achieving the ideals we’ve always proclaimed.”

“Richard Etheridge’s story has so much to teach us about race, mixedness, and what it means to be ‘American.'” says Faladé, who is excited to be in conversation with North Carolina audiences about “the lessons we can draw from people like Etheridge.”

Faladé teaches at the University of Illinois. Learn more about him and his work at davidwrightbooks.com.

Phoebe Zerwick is an award-winning investigative journalist, narrative writer, and college professor. Her writing has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine; National Geographic; The Nation; the Winston-Salem Journal; and Glamour, among other publications. Her work has been recognized by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, Columbia University, and the North Carolina Press Association and featured in the HBO documentary “The Trials of Darryl Hunt.” A graduate of the Journalism School at Columbia University, Zerwick is the director of the journalism program at Wake Forest University, where she teaches writing and journalism, including courses taught at the law school in collaboration with the director of Wake Forest’s Innocence & Justice Clinic. She lives in Winston-Salem, NC.

Zerwick’s Beyond Innocence: The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt is a deeply reported, gripping narrative of injustice, exoneration, and the crippling impact of incarceration. The book tells  the dramatic story of Darryl Hunt, imprisoned for years for a crime he did not commit, which sheds vitally important light on the realities of the American justice system and carceral state. Beyond Innocence was shortlisted for the Southern Book Prize in nonfiction. David Zucchino, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Wilmington’s Lie, calls the book “a lacerating indictment of a deeply flawed American justice system that systematically targets young black men.”

Learn more about Zerwick and her work at phoebezerwick.com.

Moderating the program is Greensboro writer, performer and arts programmer Deonna Kelli Sayed, of the PEN America NC Piedmont Chapter. Her debut solo show, American Body, is in pre-production with support from a 2023 Artist Support Grant from ArtsGreensboro.

Signing to follow, with books for sale from Scuppernong Books.

Greensboro History Museum’s By the Book series features authors exploring history connections across NC and the Southeast. On July 27, Patrick Lee Lucas (University of Kentucky), author of Athens on the Frontier, investigates Grecian-Style Architecture in the Southeast, and on August 17, Lisa Tolbert (UNC Greensboro), author of Beyond Piggly Wiggly, dives into the popularization of self-service grocery stores.

 

 

 

Ishmael Titus was one of the Black Patriots who took part in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781 with honor and sacrifice. Centuries later, his descendants have researched and worked to uncover his story. Join us for this free program to learn more about the experiences of enslaved and free people of color at Guilford Courthouse, and about the sources family and professional historians are drawing on to bring those stories to light. The program has been developed as a collaboration between Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, Greensboro Public Library, and the Greensboro History Museum. We are celebrating #NationalLibraryWeek and #NationalParkWeek.

This program will also stream on the Greensboro Public Library’s Facebook page
It is free, but registration is suggested. To register, email Beth Sheffield.

FREE PROGRAM

It’s a night of fun and games plus serious Expert Takes around gerrymandering in NC. Discover what’s behind electoral redistricting with experts from across the state. Try your hand at our Gerrymander Madness VR experience and enjoy a live onstage game show. Plus, live jazz duo from UNCG Miles Davis Jazz Studies Program, adult beverages for sale from Little Brother Brewing, and much much more!

5:30 pm Social time! Beer available for purchase, live jazz duo, VR experience, retro 3-D glasses

6:30 pm Expert Takes panel: What is happening with electoral redistricting in NC, and what we can all do about it.

Featuring Tyler Daye, Policy and Civic Engagement Manager for Common Cause NC; J. Michael Bitzer, Chair of Political Science at Catawba College and author of the book Redistricting and Gerrymandering in North Carolina: Battle Lines in the Tar Heel State; and Jim Clotfelter, UNCG Vice Chancellor Emeritus & Professor of Political Science Emeritus. Moderated by Robby Hassell, Regional Judicial Outreach Liaison · ABA Judicial Division

8:00 pm Gameshow Madness live in the auditorium

NC Democracy: Eleven Elections exhibition and Democracy Games in Connection Point open throughout the evening.

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Want even more…?

Buy a ticket for the Premium Pre-Madness Dinner in Welcome to the Gate City, starting at 5 pm! 

Park early. Enjoy a special buffet dinner and wine. Meet our experts. Get reserved auditorium seating for the Expert Takes panel and a madness goody bag.

$50 person or $410 for a reserved table for 8. Reserve and purchase online

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Or call 336-373-2306 for more information.

March is Women’s History Month! Bring your Little Lions to the museum for snacks, selfies and fun with some of Greensboro leading suffragists! Take part in fun activity with local suffragists Laura Weill Cone and Harriet Elliott for pre-K to 3rd graders and their families.

Join us for an easy, 7.5 mile guided bike tour of sites connected to Greensboro’s veterans’ history. We’ll visit war memorials, learn about military heroes Maj. George Preddy Jr. and Lt. Col. Robert L. Campbell, and more.

Check-in starts 1:30 pm. Tour departs 2 pm and returns to museum by 4 pm. Registration is required through Bicycling in Greensboro and limited to the first 40 to register.

[button link=”https://bikegso.org/event-5014060″]Reserve your spot today![/button]

Bring your own bike (and helmet). Or reserve a free/discounted Blue Duck bike by emailing Nicole.Lindahl@bikegso.org