Please join us for a lively discussion about Watch Night, also known as Freedom’s Eve. Our panelists will discuss the historic impact of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of the 13th Amendment on the African American family unit—and how this holiday still resonates today. This discussion is a reminder of our need and ability to reclaim tradition bearing from the past and how we forget it at our peril.

Panelists include Mélisande Short-Colomb, a descendent of the Mahoney and Queen families enslaved and then sold by the Society of Jesus in 1838 to ensure Georgetown University’s solvency, and Community Engagement Associate, Lab for Global Performance and Politics, Georgetown University; Dr. Kate Masur, Professor of History, Northwestern University; Candra Flanagan, Educator, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Content Team Member for Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and its Legacies; and Hollis Gentry, Genealogy Specialist, National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The conversation will be moderated by Paul Gardullo, Curator, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Project Director of Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and its Legacies.