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Footprints and Roots

Third Party Event

Fifteenth Annual Juneteenth celebrating the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. This virtual community event is sponsored jointly by the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc.-Prince George’s County, Maryland Chapter, the Prince George’s County Historical Society and the Chairman of the Prince George’s County Planning Board, Elizabeth M. Hewlett.

PRESENTERS

Keynote Address: “Juneteenth: Unaware Of Their Freedom”

        Professor Dale Green - The greatest blueprint that Morgan State University Professor Dale Glenwood Green will ever encounter was not drawn with ink and paper. Instead, the ‘plan’ was lived out before him by his grandparents. They taught him how to build a life of purpose by valuing history, preserving Black institutions, and being intentional with his existence. These beliefs were in essence inherited, as Professor Green has an ancestry intertwined with some of the most consequential individuals in American history, including his maternal line of Bishop Alexander Wayman and Frederick Douglass; and his paternal line of Reverend Samuel Green and Harriet Tubman. 

Professor Green is also a Partner in the fifth oldest African American architectural firm in the nation, Sulton Campbell Britt and Associates, P.C. where he works to develop new sites and preserve historical ones too. He is not only a respected leader in the building industry but also a sought after lecturer and scholar of African American heritage. Amongst his titles, he is The Professor of the Practice for Architecture and Historic Preservation at Morgan State University. As he teaches his students, he knows he is doing more than building their careers. He is answering the call of his ancestors, shaping young minds and skylines in the process.

Workshop: Quilt Codes and the Underground Railroad: History or Mystery

Dr. Blanche Brownley, retired Mathematics educator from the D.C. Public Schools, also taught as an adjunct professor at American, Howard, and Trinity Washington Universities. She serves as a docent at the Slave Museum and volunteers at the African Art Museum in Sandy Spring, Maryland. She is a member of the AAHGS-Montgomery County Maryland Chapter.

Workshop: Georgetown Memory Project: The Genealogical Pursuit of Truth, Reconciliation & Reunion

Malissa Ruffner, JD, MLS, CG, a resident of Baltimore, has worked for the Georgetown Memory Project since 2016. She was the director of the Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (Gen-Fed) from 2015 until 2020, and the editor of the Maryland Genealogical Society Journal from 2017 to 2019.

Workshop: Moses Grandy Opens Doors to Our African Homeland

Eric Anthony Sheppard is President and founder of Diversity Restoration Solutions, Inc., He is a selfpublished author and family genealogy researcher. During his genealogy research, he discovered a slave narrative about a former slave named Moses Grandy from Camden, North Carolina, who is part of his Grandy family ancestry and his ancestor. He is a former member of the AAHGS-Columbia, now Central Maryland Chapter.