All travel can expand one’s knowledge and outlook. Traveling to the historic places of the Black freedom struggle can be especially moving. It can spark a desire to learn more about the courageous men and women – well-known and otherwise – who strove to make our nation live up to our founding principle that all are created equal.

January’s presentation will focus on experiencing both an historic movement and an historic figure. The movement is the US civil rights era of the mid-20th century, and the figure is the 19th century American icon, Frederick Douglass.

Our speaker, John Hanrahan, has published books on both topics. His civil rights movement travel book not only covers the major sites where our civil rights history occurred but also places across the South and beyond where one can connect with Black history. His recently published book on Frederick Douglass offers a guided historical tour of over four dozen Douglass-related sites in Maryland.