Preserving our Shared Past for the Future

Chestertown, MD – Sumner Hall is delighted to that our ongoing partnership with the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College has recently generated national attention. The Chesapeake Heartland: An African American Humanities Project – spearheaded by the Starr Center – will come to life this fall, thanks to grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, and a large private donation to the Starr Center. The Center, along with its three primary community partners, Sumner Hall, the Kent County Arts Council and the Kent County Public Library, will work collaboratively on this exciting initiative.

The project will also be strengthened by the ongoing partnership between the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and our own Kent County residents that is focused on “community curation” – a process that empowers regular citizens to collect, share and interpret the history of their own families and communities. We are so grateful that Dr. Lonnie Bunch, founding Director of NMAAHC and current Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, visited Sumner Hall and Washington College in 2018 and was moved to endorse this partnership. The Chesapeake Heartland project will build an innovative model for grassroots public history that promises to be a local success, with the potential to become a regional and national model.

Sumner Hall’s specific role in this initiative is to research and document all aspects of the contributions of African American veterans to our community – from pre-Revolutionary times to the present day. Funds will also be used to support our education initiative and the research associated with our annual Legacy Day celebration. The digitization component of this project will allow Sumner Hall to develop a virtual collection of artifacts and other valuable materials for use as exhibits and documentation of the rich history and culture of African American life in our community.

Sumner Hall wishes to congratulate the Starr Center staff for leading this initiative and we look forward to working with all our community partners to make this venture successful.