Dr. Clara L. Small, who recently retired from her professorship in history at Salisbury University where she taught for thirty-six years, has agreed to be the keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Day Breakfast in Rock Hall on January 18.
Dr. Small received her B.A. and first M.A. in history from North Carolina Central University, in Durham, and her second M.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico. She completed her doctorate in history at the University of Delaware.
During her years in academia, Small has taught courses such as Racism and Discrimination; Civil Rights in American Society; Minority Groups; African American History; Readings in African American History; American Colonial History; United States History; Oral History; and World Civilizations. Her article, “Abolitionists, Free Blacks, and Runaway Slaves” was included in the book, A History of African-Americans on Maryland’s and Delaware’s Eastern Shore.
She authored a book entitled, Reality Check: Brief Biographies of African-Americans on Delmarva, which was published by the Salisbury [State] University Press and placed in all of the schools and libraries in the surrounding counties. She also co-authored with Rev. David Briddell “Men of Color, To Arms!: Manumitted Slaves and Free Blacks from the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland Who Served in the Civil War.”
She is presently researching the history of African Americans on the Eastern Shore utilizing oral history, official documents, and other sources and is currently serving on the (governor appointed) Governor’s Commission to Coordinate the Study, Commemoration, and Impact of the History and Legacy of Slavery in Maryland. In 2011, she was also appointed to the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture by Governor O’Malley.
The theme of the program this year is “Dream it…Believe it…Achieve it.”
Breakfast will start serving at 7am, and the program will start at 8. Tickets are $12, and can be purchased from any Chester Valley Ministers’ Association member or at the door.
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