2006 Mail

Dear John Brown Scholars,

The Niagara Movement Centenary was a huge success -- congratulations to the National Park Service for its organization. They are worthy stewards of Storer College!

I had an especially good time meeting the Canadian heritage group, Bob O'Connor with his excellent "Perfect Steel Trap: Harpers Ferry 1859," visiting Kip Stowell, hearing and singing along with Magpie, and enjoying the talent of artists at the children's tent, the dawn walk at the enginehouse site at the Murphy Farm.

During the time I met a Ph.D. student from Indiana University, Andrew Kahrl, who jumped into his car in Louisville and drove straight through to be part of the celebration. His research topic is African American tourism in the early 20th century, and he is especially interested in the events surrounding the plaque at John Brown's fort which was reinstalled by the NAACP this past July.

I have lots of photos, including Andrew, and of Gwen Roper in the choir to match the one I took of her in 1996 leading the same march published in John Brown Mysteries, so have put them on their own page online at:
http://www.alliesforfreedom.org/Niagara_Movement_photos.html

Here is Andrew Kahrl's formal query:

Andrew W. Kahrl wrote:

Dear Jean,

Here is a brief description of my research interests as it relates to the history of Harpers Ferry:

My dissertation explores the history of African American recreation and tourism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century South. I examine the challenges African Americans' faced in their efforts to secure access to and dignity at sites of pleasure and amusement. I am particularly interested in the intersection of recreational pursuits and the emergence of black commemorative activities. In this respect, my research focuses on the appeal of Harpers Ferry as a vacation and excursion destination amongst urban blacks from Washington and Baltimore. Throughout the summer months, African American families of means enjoyed extended vacations in the area, while on weekends excursion trains transported groups numbering in the hundreds to Harpers Ferry. Travel promoters advertised Harpers Ferry as not simply a beautiful locale with numerous recreational options, but moreover as a "mecca for the colored American citizen," a pivotal site in black history, and an appropriate counterpart to established sites of national memory such as Mount Vernon, where African Americans encountered hostility and exclusion.

This project asks how such initiatives shaped African American interpretations of John Brown's raid and the abolition movement in the
post-emancipation era. It seeks to draw a connection between Harpers Ferry as a vacation and recreational destination and as a uniquely
African American site of memory. In a larger sense, though, this project advances the significance of African Americans' participation in the burgeoning travel and tourism industry of this era, in particular their travel to and experiences at sites pivotal in the Civil War. With a focus on the lives of African American families who owned summer homes in Harpers Ferry, Storer College's efforts to promote summer vacations to the area through its summer boarders program, and the experiences of participants in conferences and meetings such as the second Niagara conference, this project seeks to illustrate Harpers Ferry's pivotal role in black commemorative activities and, by extension, cultural consciousness, in the post-emancipation era.

Any help or advice on researching this topic, such as issues or figures worth exploring, people to talk to, or archives and other repositories that might contain good source material, is much appreciated. I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts on this and other research topics related to Harpers Ferry and African American history.

All the best,

Andrew W. Kahrl
Ph.D. candidate
Department of History
Indiana University

Thanks to all for welcome, for the pleasant book-signing of John Brown's Family in California, and the opportunity for new documentation and research.

Jean Libby
www.alliesforfreedom.org