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Roane Smothers
The
First African
American US Senator
On Sunday, February
23, 2014 at 2:00 pm, the Garst Museum will host a presentation by
Roane Smothers. The topic will be Hiram Revels, the first African
American U.S. Senator. Senator Hiram Revels was educated at the Union
Literary Institute in Randolph County, Indiana which was part of the
Longtown settlement.
Roane Smothers was
born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He received a Bachelor of
Science Degree from the University of Wisconsin Madison and
a Master
of Urban Planning Degree from Wayne State University in
Detroit. He
retired in December 2013 from the City of Dayton as a Historic
Preservation Planner. While in Dayton, Roane began genealogy
research. As he continued his research, he became interested in the
history of Longtown where his mother’s family resided.
Through his research,
he discovered that the Clemens and Alexander’s families were
the first settlers of Longtown. With that knowledge, he joined the
Union Literary Institute Preservation Society and expanded its
mission to save all the remaining structures of Longtown. Roane is
currently Vice President of the Union Literary Institute Preservation
Society. He wrote and nominated the James and Sophia Clemens
Farmstead in Darke County to the National Register of Historic Places
and to the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom Program as an
Underground Railroad Site. He is also on the Advisory Board of the
Dayton Foundation’s African-American Community Fund.
The Sunday, February
23, 2014, Garst program on Senator Hiram Revels begins at 2:00.
Admission to the program is free and open to the public, however
normal admission fees apply to tour the entire museum.
Support for the Garst
Lecture Series comes, in part, from the Harry D. Stephens Memorial
Trust, Inc.
The Garst Museum is
located at:
2205 North
Broadway
Greenville, OH 45331
Phone: 937-548-5250 / Fax:
937-548-7645
http://www.garstmuseum.org
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