Sharing the Story

Publications
Our publications include scholarly, educational and instructional materials focused on key interpretive themes and based on primary research from the collections. Publications include newsletters, scholarly articles, books and exhibition catalogues, published under the aegis of the Society or through commercial and university presses. For more information about these publications, contact us at info@weeksvillesociety.org.

Genealogy Workshop
We launched our first Genealogy Workshop series in fall 2006. The sessions, led by Julius and Joysetta Pearse from African Atlantic Genealogical Society, Inc., teach participants how to trace their family histories through oral history, archival records and genealogical resources, including specialized software and internet resources. The workshop also includes field trips to local archives and discounted access to DNA testing.

Annual Speakers Series
Our Annual Speaker Series highlights the significant history, artistic creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of African Americans in Brooklyn and beyond with informative panel presentations, cosponsored by Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn Public Library and other institutions. Programs this year spotlighted Weeksville in the 1860s. Topics and speakers thus far have included:

• Book Signing & Reception with Barnet Schecter, author of The Devil’s Own Work:
  The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America, released in late January, 2006. Cosponsored by Brooklyn Historical Society, the event was covered by CSPAN’s BookTV.

• Free and Female: African-American Women in 19th Century New York:
  A panel presentation copresented with Brooklyn Public library. The program explored the everyday and extraordinary lives of African American women during the post-Emancipation era and featured as panelists Judith Burgess, Ph.D., educator and cultural anthropologist; Cynthia Copeland, director of the American Revolution Project at the New York-Historical Society, Joanne Edey-Rhodes, professor, Hunter College, City University of New York; and Carla Peterson, Ph.D., professor, University of Maryland.

• Who’s Buried There?
  African Americans in 18th and 19th Century New York Burial Grounds: Copresented with Brooklyn Public Library, this program featured new information on three New York cemeteries: Weeksville's historic Free black cemetery-the Citizens Union/Mount Pleasant Cemetery, burials of African Americans at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, including Weeksville’s own Dr. Susan Smith McKinney-Steward, and the African Burial Ground in Manhattan. Panelists included: Wilhelmena Rhodes Kelly and Linda Rhodes Jones, genealogists; Rodney Leon, architect and designer of the African Burial Ground Memorial, and Jeffrey I. Richman, author and Green-Wood Cemetery historian.

• Free and Organized:
  Black Social Clubs in 19th Century Brooklyn
  In the early 19th century, free Blacks in Brooklyn began to organize social and mutual benefit societies. Begun by newly emancipated African Americans in communities such as Weeksville, these organizations were essential in advancing education, political and activist efforts. They also helped family in crisis, often providing social services—from burial costs to caring for the sick, elderly and orphaned. This panel explored the ongoing role and importance of these organizations, how African Americans used these organizations to establish extensive networks to provide for their communities, and how they represented and continue to represent the issues and concerns of African communities in the post-emancipation period and beyond. Panelists included: Craig S. Wilder, Ph.D., author of A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn; Helen Brown, recorder for the Eastern District Grand Tent #3 of the United Order of Tents, one of the oldest Black women’s organizations of its kind; Delores McCullough, a founding member of Weeksville Heritage Center and a member of Bridge Street AWME Church, and Osceola “Ozzie” Fletcher, historian and former president of the Comus Club, one of the oldest Black male social clubs in the Northeast.