Is Africa My Home? at Nabb Center February 11

SALISBURY, MD ----A lecture by Dr. Debra Newman Ham, "Is Africa My Home? The Debate About the Colonization of Maryland Blacks in the 19th Century," is at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11, in the Great Hall, Holloway Hall at Salisbury University.

Sponsored by the Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture at SU and the Maryland Humanities Council, the discussion explores the colonization movement in the antebellum United States.

Although slavery divided the North and South during the first half of the 19th century, a group of statesmen, clergymen and others from both regions founded the American Colonization Society in 1816 to settle free people of color in Africa. In 1831 Maryland's auxiliary formed the autonomous Maryland State Colonization Society.

Over a 20-year period, this organization assisted some 1,200 African Americans from Maryland and other states in settling on the west coast of Africa at Cape Palmas.

Ham, a member of the Maryland Humanities Council Speakers Bureau, is professor of history at Morgan State University where she teaches classes on African, African American, archival and public history. She received her Ph.D. in African history from Howard University, her M.A. in African history from Boston University, and her B.A. in history from Howard University.

The event is free and open to the public and sign language interpretation is available upon request. Call 410-543-6312 for more information or visit the Nabb Center Web site at http://nabbhistory.salisbury.edu.