Join us for a screening of the short film “The 29th Connecticut Regiment and the Fight For Freedom,” followed by a presentation by one of the filmmakers.

This original documentary, which won Best Connecticut Film at the 2023 Mystic Film Festival, tells the story of the brave African-American men who enlisted in Connecticut’s 29th Colored Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War and fought for the freedom of their people. The film tells their remarkable story of sacrifice and heroism on battlefields in South Carolina and Virginia. Near the end of the war, the 29th Connecticut was sent to Brownsville, Texas where they were part of the federal force that occupied that town and brought news of the emancipation of the enslaved – celebrated today as Juneteenth.

After the film screening, Christopher Barlow of the Berlin Equity Action Team will give a presentation about the making of the film.

Before and after the program, we invite you to browse our exhibition, Wide Awake: Campaigning for Lincoln. The exhibition highlights a youth movement born out of the 1860 presidential campaign that had an outsized impact on Lincoln’s election and the war that followed.

This program is free! Please register below to let us know you’re coming!

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