DECEMBER 4-5 2009

Symposium: John Brown: Slavery and the Legacy of Violence in Our Time

DECEMBER 6-8

Reenactments and Memorial Service

Lake Placid/North Elba, Westport, Elizabethtown, NY

 Dubbed one of the most controversial figures in American history, John Brown, 150 years after his death, remains a stimulant to discussion on the subject of slavery and the use of violence to achieve political and social change. Who was John Brown?  To some, he was a terrorist, to others a martyr and the first to stand against the violence of slavery. To many, his words and actions set our nation on the path to Civil War which reunified the nation with federal laws that abolished slavery.

 The abolitionist John Brown moved his family to North Elba (Lake Placid) in 1849 to assist with the free black settlement called "Timbucto". Ten years later, John Brown and his followers attacked the U.S. Arsenal at Harper's Ferry in an ill-fated attempt to incite a slave revolt. He was subsequently tried, convicted and executed, and Brown's body was transported back to his home in Lake Placid, New York in the Adirondacks, and laid to rest.

 Join the discussion From December 4-8, 2009. Be part of the John Brown Coming Home Commemoration, which includes a series of events that will examine John Brown's impact on the country leading up to the civil war, the use of violence, and on the ongoing efforts to end slavery and human rights abuses in this country and worldwide; and re-enactments of his cortege home, body laying in state at the Essex County Courthouse, burial at his farm, and memorial service. 

 Distinguished presenters include:

* Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves

* Russell Banks, author

* Bernardine Dohrn, activist  co-founder of the Weather Underground

* George Holmes, executive director of CORE

* John Brown descendant Alice Keesey Mecoy

* Maria Suarez, sold into slavery at at age 16

* Margaret Washington, Sojourner Truth's America

* Louis DeCaro, Jr., author John Brown the Cost of Freedom

 For more information and registration, go to www.johnbrowncominghome.com.