Tuesday, August 3 at 6:30 pm
Craig Dudnick’s Evanston’s Living History presentation begins with Mr. Anthony Crawford, born into slavery in January, 1865 in Abbeville, South Carolina. Through emancipation and the promise of Reconstruction, the Crawford family prospered, acquiring property in Abbeville that Anthony inherited and developed into 400 acres of prime cotton land.
A deadlocked Presidential election in 1876 led to the compromise which removed federal troops from the South and sounded the death knell for Reconstruction. With the dream of democracy crushed and the Jim Crow South left in its wake, Mr. Crawford was brutally lynched in Abbeville in 1916–his family forced to flee to Evanston, Illinois and the institutionalized racism of the North.
The transformation took decades, but those once refugees became community leaders.
And later, Mr. Crawford’s descendants, alongside the families of Emmett Till, Michael Schwerener, James Earl Chaney, and Andrew Goodman worked to gain passage of United States Senate Resolution 39, which apologized for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-lynching legislation.
This program will be held on Zoom. We will send an email with the Zoom link on the day of the program. CONTACT: Brendan Kieran 978-373-1586, x608 bkieran@haverhillpl.org