Serving Barnwell County and it's neighbors since 1852
Dr. Walter Curry will be the guest speaker at the Barnwell County Museum's Black History Month program on Feb. 19.
The Barnwell County Museum is inviting the community to their first Black History Month program in three years due to limitations of the COVID pandemic.
On Sunday, February 19 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. doors will be open to the Effie Mae Fuller Building located adjacent to the museum.
“We're hoping that we will be able to see people coming in the door again,” said Barbara Harber, director and acting curator of the Barnwell County Museum.
Guests are welcome to enjoy refreshments, hear the insights of guest speaker Dr. Walter Curry, and visit the displays located in the lower level of the museum.
“I have numerous items all over the bottom floor of the museum on Black History Month, anything to do with military, teachers, schools, anything that has to do with Black history in Barnwell County,” said Harber.
Guest speaker and Orangeburg native, Dr. Curry, will be sharing highlights from his recent book, “The Awakening: The Seawright-Ellison Family Saga, Vol 1, A Narrative History,” and first book, “The Thompson Family: Untold Stories from the Past.”
Dr. Curry’s publications tell the sagas of notable relatives and enslaved ancestors in Aiken, Orangeburg, and Richland counties.
“This book provides thoughtful insight on how family stories of hard life in servitude as slaves to achieving personal successes, personal/civic responsibility, sacrifice, ultimate freedom, overcoming adversity, and redemption gives us all a greater appreciation of how the past helps shape our narrative today,” states The Independent Author Network.
Harber, alongside museum office manager Virginia Geter and board of directors chairman Milton Harden, made efforts in prior years to bring Dr. Curry to share his writings but an event never came to fruition due to the fluctuation of COVID numbers.
“I've never heard Dr. Curry speak myself, but I've had several people reach out and say that he was an excellent speaker,” said Harber.
The public is encouraged to attend the event and visit the museum.
