WS Chronicle

2 will receive St. Philips Cedric S. Rodney Unity Award

SPECIAL TO  THE CHRONICLE

The St. Philips Heritage Center at Old Salem Museums & Gardens in partnership with Winston-Salem State University will host a luncheon on Thursday, June 16, in celebration of Juneteenth, the country’s longest-running observance of the abolition of slavery.

The Juneteenth luncheon will begin at noon and will last until 1:30 p.m. It will take place in the James A. Gray, Jr. Auditorium at the Old Salem Visitor Center at 900 Old Salem Road. The Luncheon costs$25 for adults and $20 for students and Friends of Salem. Reservations must be made in advance by calling 1-800-441-5305.

In commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of founding of the town of Salem, the guest speaker for the Juneteenth Luncheon will be Dr. Jon Sensbach. Dr. Sensbach is an early scholar of African Moravian history and conducted much of the research of African-Americans in Forsyth County during the 18th and 19th centuries. Dr. Jon Sensbach is professor of history at the University of Florida. He teaches the graduate course on early America and has taught a graduate seminar on the Black Atlantic as well as undergraduate courses on the Atlantic slave trade, colonial America, and the American Revolution. His most recent book, “Rebecca’s Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World” (Harvard, 2005), is the remarkable story of a Caribbean woman—a slave turned evangelist—who helped inspire the rise of black Christianity in the Atlantic world. He is also the author of “A Separate Canaan: The Making of an Afro-Moravian World in North Carolina, 1763-1840” (North Carolina 1998). Exploring the fluidity of race in Revolutionary era America, this book highlights the struggle of African-Americans to secure their fragile place in a culture unwilling to give them full human rights.

The 2016 St. Philips Cedric S. Rodney Unity Award will be presented to LaRue P. Cunningham and Dr. T. Sharee Fowler. The award was established in honor of the late Rev. Dr. Cedric S. Rodney, a Moravian minister who led the restoration efforts of the Historic St. Philips Moravian Church in Old Salem. The candidates are proven community bridge builders and work success-fully to move people toward a common goal for the benefit of our society.

Luncheon participants may also tour the St. Philips African Moravian Church, the oldest standing African-American Church in North Carolina, where the ending of slavery was announced on Sunday, May 21, 1865.