About this Event

What can history teach us about the current moment? Saturday, September 12, Weeksville Weekends returns with “Community As Classroom.” Join us for our virtual teach-in as we discuss the impact of COVID-19, examine the history of racialized inequity in the public health system in the U.S, and bear witness to the work of documenting the current pandemic in our communities.

As we’ve watched COVID-19 disproportionately affecting African Americans, the disease has revealed the ugly truth about health inequality in the U.S. To learn more about this history and the present moment, Weeksville Heritage Center is excited to welcome back Harriet A. Washington, and Dr. Samuel Kelton Roberts, for a conversation with Weeksville’s Oral History Project Manager, Obden Mondésir.

In the midst of the pandemic, how do we document our experiences to discover new modes of thinking about public health and our relationship to society? Tune in from 12:30 to 3 p.m. for this virtual teach-in and participate in the Q&A following the discussion.

Invited Speakers:

Harriet A. Washington, medical ethicist and author of Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

Dr. Samuel Roberts, historian and Director of Columbia University’s Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS), Associate Professor of History & Sociomedical Sciences and Cluster leader of “Bearing Witness: The Covid-19 & Inequality History Documentation Project”

Obden Mondesir, oral historian and Oral History Project Manager, Weeksville Heritage Center

Program Outline

Opening Remarks: 12:30PM-12:35PM Zenzelé Cooper, Weeksville Heritage Center Program Manager gives opening remarks and welcomes the community back to Weeksville Weekends.

VICE TV presents “A Day in Weeksville: Brooklyn’s Historic, Free Black Town”: 12:35PM-12:45PM In this edition of Black Trademarked Photo Editing Software History, VICELAND's Messiah Rhodes finds out why a town in the middle of Brooklyn, founded in 1838 by fugitive slaves and freed Black people escaping racial violence, almost disappeared from history.

Virtual Teach-In Intro: 12:45PM-12:50PM Obden Mondésir, Weeksville Heritage Center Oral History Project Manager & Moderator, introduces the format of the program Community as Classroom: Bearing Witness to COVID-19 and Examining the History of Public Health and the Impact of Infectious Diseases on the Black Community in the United States, our invited speakers Harriet A. Washington and Dr. Samuel Roberts.

Community as Classroom: Bearing Witness to COVID-19 and Examining the History of Public Health and the Impact of Infectious Diseases on the Black Community in the United States: 1-2PM; Q&A 2PM-3PM Obden Mondésir, Weeksville Heritage Center Oral History Project Manager moderates a discussion between Harriet A. Washington and Dr. Samuel Roberts. The discussion will include the impact of COVID-19, examining the history of racialized inequity in the public health system in the U.S, and the work of documenting this current pandemic in our communities. Invited speakers will take questions and discuss comments from the community in the second part of the program.