Hello everyone,
September 21st, 2015 – Our 78th meeting!! We continue our seventh year.
The next meeting of the Nashville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Monday, September 21st, 2015, in the visitor’s center of Ft. Negley Park, a unit of Metro Parks, Nashville, TN. This is located off I-65 just south of downtown between 4th Avenue South and 8th Avenue South on Edgehill Avenue/Chestnut Avenue. Take Exit 81, Wedgewood Avenue, off I-65 and follow the signs to the Science Museum. The meeting begins at 7:00 PM and is always open to the public. Members please bring a friend or two – new recruits are always welcomed.
Our Speaker and Topic - “Innovate: Lessons From The Underground Railroad”
The Underground Railroad had no iron tracks per se – but it did have “tracks” to places in the North (and Canada) for slaves who left their plantations seeking freedom in a part of America where slavery had been ended years before. Aided by free blacks and white Abolitionists, by 1850 some sources estimate that over 100,000 slaves had made good their escapes. While the foundation for the UGRR was laid in the 18th Century where many slaves left for Florida, then a Spanish possession, it really took off in the 19th Century. When looked at as an innovative solution to a problem, the UGRR was indeed quite dynamic and effective and it was a super highway of its day. Of course it took the Civil War and the 13th Amendment to end slavery in America but the UGRR indeed had its hand in ending it as well.
Our speaker this month, Dr. Sybill Bennett, is the author of the book Innovate: Lessons from the Underground Railroad. This book dares to compare the Internet and the UGRR as two of America’s most innovative, effective, and disruptive networks. Think about it: both serve as platforms for freedom, justice, and equality. From portals and links to branding and ownership, the comparisons are too obvious to ignore and these facts form the foundation of this month’s program.
Dr. Sybill Bennettt, or Dr. Syb as she is known by students and friends alike, is a professor of journalism at Belmont University in Nashville as well as a public speaker, consultant and much more. She holds degrees from Marquette University (B.A.), Loyola University of Chicago (Masters of Education) and Vanderbilt University (PhD). She also did course work at Western Kentucky University and Harvard University. She is a well known speaker and we are fortunate to have her speak to us at the Nashville Civil War Roundtable.
Please join us for what is sure to be a very interesting program with a unique take on the topic.