Join us Thursday, September 18 at 6:30 pm for a lecture on slavery, emancipation, and the war experience of Black Iowans by Leslie A. Schwalm Professor Emeritus, History and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies, University of Iowa.

Leslie Schwalm is a retired historian who taught for more than 30 years at the University of Iowa in the History and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies departments.  Her scholarship has focused on the Civil War era and its aftermath, especially for Black Americans.  Her second book, Emancipation’s Diaspora: Race and Reconstruction in the Upper Midwest, unveiled the history of slavery and the consequences of emancipation in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.   In working on this book, she found extensive evidence of Black women and men building vibrant midwestern communities while challenging the laws and practices of racial discrimination—one of the themes she will touch on today. Schwalm is a Distinguished Lecturer with the Organization of American Historians.

Find out more on her website: https://leslieschwalm.com/

The lecture is free and open to the public.