The Mahoning Valley Historical Society, in recognition of African-American History Month, will present The Storm, The Whirlwind & the Earthquake: Perspectives into the Black Abolitionist’s Movement.
Tuesday, February 19th
7:00 p.m.
Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center
325 West Federal Street, Youngstown
The event is free and open to the public. Panelists will include local historians Stacey Adger, Vince Shivers, and Kenneth King. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Diane Barnes, a professor of History at Youngstown State University. Panelists will discuss the early development of the black abolitionist movement, the relationship to John Brown and a family tie to abolitionists in Philadelphia.
Stacey Adger is a lifelong resident of Youngstown and is the daughter of William and the late Geraldine Jackson Adger. She is a product of the Youngstown City Schools, having graduated from The Rayen School in the 1980’s. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Youngstown State University in Speech/Telecommunication with a minor in marketing and public relations.
Adger’s great great grandfather, the Reverend Pleasant Tucker, founded Third Baptist Church here in 1874, her grandfather, the Reverend R. L. Thomas founded the first Bethany Baptist Church on Chicago Avenue, and the Donald Lockett VFW Post 6488 is named after a cousin. It is her research on the African American Adgers which has been the most interesting. Her branch from Clarendon County, South Carolina is affiliated with the Briggs v. Elliott court case which was rolled into the Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation case. Some of the earliest Adger owned slaves, dating back to the 1770’s were amonth those taken to Caddo Parish, Louisiana in the 1840’s after the Louisiana Purchase was finalized. However, it was the family from Charleston, which became abolitionists, business people, educators and part of the African American elite in Philadelphia.
Vince Shivers has been a historian in the city of Youngstown and in the state of Ohio for more than 15 years. He is a graduate of Youngstown State University, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and a Masters Degree in History. He was active in the African-American student affairs, and a member of the Black Studies evaluation committee, co-founded African Awareness Week on the campus. Mr. Shivers studied Ki-Swahili courses at Kent State University in Ohio Department of Pan African Studies.
In 1990, Mr. Shivers began research on the first eminent African- American historian George Washington Williams and one of America’s early African-American contractors and architect, P. Ross Berry. Due to his research on George W. Williams, P. Ross Berry, and his years as a historian, Mr. Shivers has lectured at Cleveland State University, Kent State, Youngstown State University, the Ohio State University Office of Minority Affairs for the Youngstown Public Schools, and the United States Air Force Base in Washington D.C., The Ohio State House, Akron Museum of Art, the 150th Anniversary of the Raid on Harpers Ferry, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, several social institutions, historical societies, churches and secondary schools. He has published articles for Oxford University Press, the Routledge Press, African-American Architects, and also wrote several articles on the American abolitionist John Brown, George Washington Williams, The French and Haitian Revolution, African-American slavery and the importance of preservation in America. Mr. Shivers teaches a research seminar on the Underground Railroad for Youngstown State University. In 2008 he was recognized by the 127th General Assembly of Ohio by Senator John A. Boccieri for service as a historian.