Chestertown's African-American Civil War Veterans Hall Topic Of February 23rd Lecture

Chestertown, MD, February 16, 2004 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “With Sacred Vigilance: Chestertown's Charles Sumner Post,” a lecture by Kees de Mooy, Program Manager at the Center. The talk will be held Monday, February 23, at 4:30 p.m. in the College's Casey Academic Forum. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Few may know that on South Queen Street in Chestertown stands one of only two African-American Civil War veterans' halls left standing in the United States. Decaying and abandoned since 1985, the hall was built in 1908 by local African-American veterans of the Civil War, and named for the famous abolitionist Senator from Massachusetts, Charles Sumner. The Charles Sumner Post #25, Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) lodge, served a vital function in the local community. Members of the Sumner Post, including the Women's Relief Corps #1 (the first in Maryland), provided aid to fellow veterans, and the widows and orphans of Civil War soldiers. Army Hall, as it was commonly known, was used primarily for meetings and functions related to the veterans group, but was also rented out for graduation parties, weddings and musical performances. In 1937, Ella Fitzgerald and Chick Webb traveled by steamboat from Baltimore to perform on its second floor stage, and many other jazz notables passed through its doors. In 1955, the building was sold to the Centennial Beneficial Association, a group of men and women who formed themselves into “a society for the purpose of soothing the sorrows and softening the pillows of the sick and drying up the tears of the children.” Gradually, the building became known as Centennial Hall, and the structure's original name and function were all but forgotten.

The Charles Sumner Post is a living monument to African-American Civil War veterans and a vitally important part of local, state and national history. The C.V. Starr Center at Washington College and Preservation Incorporated—a local non-profit group dedicated to the building's restoration—raised the money to purchase this local treasure and save it from demolition. Restoring the building to its former glory will be a challenging but worthwhile undertaking.

De Mooy, a board member of Preservation Incorporated, will talk about the history of the post and its members, and discuss the restoration work that is planned. Funding and assistance for the project are provided by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Maryland Historical Trust, Preservation Incorporated, Kent County Heritage Trust, Historical Society of Kent County, C.V. Starr Center, Kent County Arts Council, and the many Friends of the Charles Sumner Post.

Twenty-One Muslim Students To Participate In First-Ever American Studies Institute At Washington College

Chestertown, MD, June 16, 2003 — Washington College will host 21 Muslim students from several Asian countries this summer for an ambitious new cultural exchange program. The American Studies Institute at Washington College, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, is the first-ever government-funded program to invite college students from Islamic backgrounds to study American culture and history. The theme of the Institute is “American Democracy: The Great Experiment.” It will run from June 29 to August 2 in Chestertown.
Student leaders from predominantly Islamic universities in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh (seven students from each country, 12 women and 9 men in all) were selected from hundreds of applications by the respective U.S. Embassies in Islamabad, New Delhi and Dhaka. Through experiences such as Fourth of July parades and minor-league baseball games, to academic readings and discussions of political writers and theorists, the students will spend a month in a small American town—Chestertown—immersing themselves in American culture.
A series of lectures by Washington College faculty and distinguished visitors will introduce students to both the possibilities and the realities of American democracy. During the first week, titled “Birthrights,” the students will concentrate on the ideals of the founders, studying the charter documents of the United States along with the writings of Washington, Jefferson, Adams and other members of the original “greatest generation.” The second week's program, “Civil Rights,” will focus on ways that Americans have struggled to realize those ideals, and will include segments on the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. Week three, “Chestertown, U.S.A.,” will give the students a close look at democracy in action, allowing them to meet with community leaders from diverse backgrounds. Week Four, “America and the World,” will examine the relationship between the United States and other nations.
The Institute is distinctive because of Washington College's small-town setting that allows international students to experience directly an America very different than the one portrayed in movies, television and popular media. Chestertown, known for its picturesque streets lined with 18th-century houses, will be a living laboratory in which to study America's founding, and as a busy county seat, provides an easy way for students to meet and interact with the men and women who translate democratic ideals into everyday practice through local courtrooms, politics, volunteerism and community activism.
In addition to classroom experience, the students will participate in a wide variety of extracurricular activities, including field trips to Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York City. Once the students have completed their course of study in Chestertown, they will travel to Washington, D.C., to tour the shrines of American democracy and receive final briefings at the Department of State. By interacting with a wide variety of American citizens, these future leaders will return to their countries with a greater understanding of American history and the democratic ideals that guide it.
For further information about the American Studies Institute, contact Kees de Mooy, Program Manager for the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, 410-810-7156, or visit the Center online at visit the Center online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu. The C. V. Starr Center is a forum for new scholarship about American history. Drawing on the special historical strengths of Washington College, the Center explores the early republic, the rise of democracy, and the manifold ways in which the founding era continues to shape the fabric of American culture. The Center is interdisciplinary, encouraging the study of traditional history alongside new approaches, and seeking to bridge the divide between the academic world and the public at large.

Author Kees De Mooy To Present "John Adams In His Own Words" April 17

Chestertown, MD, April 1, 2003 — “My plain writings,” wrote John Adams in 1820, “have been misunderstood by many, misrepresented by more, and anathematized by multitudes who never read them.”

But after nearly 200 years, that may be about to change. On Thursday, April 17, Kees de Mooy of Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience will present “John Adams in His Own Words,” an opportunity to reevaluate the most controversial and cantankerous of the Founding Fathers. De Mooy will read from his newly published book, The Wisdom of John Adams (Citadel Press), a collection of Adams's writings on subjects from patriotism to religion to parenthood. The event, which will be held at 4 p.m. in the College's Casey Academic Center Forum, will be followed by a book-signing. It is free and open to the public.

The nation's second president and a leader of the revolutionary generation, Adams has drawn new attention since the publication of a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by David McCullough. “His accomplishments have sometimes been overshadowed by his peers Washington and Jefferson,” de Mooy acknowledges. “Yet he was a truly heroic figure in his own right – intelligent, passionate, fiercely patriotic, and staunchly committed to the ideals of the United States.”

Adams was also fiercely – some might say stubbornly – opinionated, about everything from politics (“I shall be plagued with piddling politicians as long as I live”) to the French (“Stern and haughty republican as I am, I cannot help loving these people”) to his own shortcomings (“Vanity … is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly”). De Mooy, who is the Starr Center's program manager and a 2001 graduate of Washington College, combed through thousands of Adams's letters, written over a period of more than 70 years, to find the most revealing and colorful passages. He has recently finished a similar volume on Thomas Jefferson, which will be published later this year, and is at work on another on Abraham Lincoln. The Wisdom of John Adams will be available for sale at the April 17 event.

For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online athttp://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.