About the Event
This program will focus on the history of African Americans and the Blue Ridge Parkway, from the landowners who had to sell their land for the parkway to be built, to people that worked on the construction, segregated rest areas, all the way up to today. Our guest speakers include researcher Rebecca Branson Jones, historian Dr. Carmen Foster, and National Park Service ranger Ajena Cason Rogers.
About the Speakers
Dr. Carmen Foster couples her lens as a public historian with expertise in organizational leadership, team development, and facilitation as a consultant and coach for senior executives and next-generation leaders. She earned her doctorate in education from the University of Virginia and holds a master's in public administration from Harvard University. Her dissertation research has examined the experiences of Richmond, Virginia's African American community during school desegregation in the early 1960s. As a child of the civil rights movement, she was one of the first wave of students to desegregate the Richmond school system.
Rebecca Branson Jones (pronouns: she/they) is a musician and filmmaker from the piedmont of North Carolina. She is a graduate of the M.A. program in Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University. Jones worked as a filmmaker for 14 years as an editor, cinematographer and producer of documentaries about Western North Carolina music and history. She served as an apprentice editor on the 2019 Ken Burns documentary Country Music and is currently working on a documentary series about Mental Health due to air on PBS on June 27 2022.
Ajena Cason Rogers is the Supervisory Park Ranger at Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site where she helps visitors connect to the inspiring story of Maggie Lena Walker - businesswoman, community activist, and nationally known African American leader during the Jim Crow-era of segregation. Ajena began her National Park Service career as a seasonal interpreter on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 1984 and often feels she “grew up in the Park Service.” In addition to the Parkway and Maggie Walker, she has worked at Booker T. Washington National Monument, Independence National Historical Park, and Valley Forge National Historical Park. At each park site, she found herself drawn to social history "ripe for the telling,” particularly stories about the African American experience. Ajena enjoys bringing these stories forward for park visitors. She has received several awards and recognition for her interpretive presentations and in 2006 wrote an article for Legacy magazine about the personal side of interpreting the African American experience.
This event is $8 for the general public and Free for Museum Members.
PLEASE NOTE: Limited seating available. An 80% refund will be issued if the participant cancels three weeks prior to the event. For cancellations made less than three weeks prior to the event, BRAHM will issue a refund IF the museum is able to fill the vacated spot.
