The Mark Twain House & Museum is beyond excited to bring together Twain scholar Kevin MacDonnell, historian Dr. Camesha Scruggs, and Rev. Samuel Blanks of Griffin’s Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church to discuss George Griffin’s life and legacy.
The lecture begins at 6:00 PM ET, followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A. This is a FREE HYBRID event sponsored by Kathleen and David Jimenez.
In-Person Attendees are invited to come early for a Pasta Reception sponsored by Salute starting at 5:30PM ET. Food is first come, first serve and there will be a cash bar.
Live-Streaming Attendees will be sent a link to access the live stream. Please note that while everyone can watch with the link, only those with YouTube accounts will be able to participate in the virtual chat.
The 2024 Spring Issue of The Mark Twain Journal with Mac Donnell’s biography of George Griffin will be available at the end of the event. You can pre-order your copy through the Mark Twain Store.
About the Program:
George Griffin came to wash the windows in Mark Twain’s house and stayed 17 years, taking on the position of butler, the highest-ranking employee in the household. One hundred and fifty years later this member of the Hartford African American community remains an integral part of the history of the Mark Twain House and the Hartford community. As such The Mark Twain House & Museum is beyond excited to bring together Twain scholar Kevin MacDonnell, historian Dr. Camesha Scruggs, and Rev. Samuel Blanks of Griffin’s Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church to discuss this important figure’s life and legacy.
The evening will begin with a presentation on MacDonnell’s new biographical sketch of Griffin, published in the Spring 2024 edition of the Mark Twain Journal, which provides the most comprehensive look into Griffin’s life to date and brings us face to face with the man who is said to have inspired Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
MacDonnell will then be joined by Dr. Scruggs and Rev. Blanks for a panel discussion moderated by Mark Twain House historian Steve Courtney. The panel will dive deeper into Griffin’s life as a prominent Black man in Hartford in Mark Twain’s era, what we can learn from Griffin, and how his legacy continues. The program will conclude with an audience Q&A. Copies of the Mark Twain Journal containing MacDonnell’s biographical sketch of Griffin will be for sale after the program.
About the Speakers:
Kevin Mac Donnell is a leading Mark Twain scholar and collector of books and memorabilia who lives in Austin, Texas. Mac Donnell co-edited (with Alan Gribben) Mark Twain’s Rubaiyat (1983), contributed articles to the Mark Twain Encyclopedia (1993), co-edited (with R. Kent Rasmussen) Mark Twain and Youth (2016), and has reviewed over 50 books for the Mark Twain Forum. His discovery of the probable source of Mark Twain’s nom de plume went viral on Salon.com and The Huffington Post and was cited as “research of note” by The Chronicle of Higher Education. He was chosen as a Mark Twain Legacy Scholar by the Mark Twain Journal in 2016. His collection of more than 9,000 Mark Twain items–first editions, archives, manuscripts, and artifacts—is the largest in private hands, and is frequently shared with other scholars and museums.
Dr. Camesha Scruggs is an Assistant Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University. She received a doctorate in history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a BA and MA in history from Texas Southern University. Her research fields and teaching interests are 20th-century U.S. History, African American History, and Public History. She performs volunteer work for various community preservation initiatives, bringing stories to broader audiences. She connects with local historical societies, sites and organizations, ensuring diverse narratives are preserved and presented. Her current manuscript project is a further examination of how interventions from social, civic, government, secondary, and higher education institutions impacted the occupation of domestic service during the New Deal Era.
The Reverend Samuel Corey Blanks is a native of Bladenboro, N.C. He is the second of two children born to the late Mr. James Albert Blanks and Mrs. Janice Cynthia Blue Blanks. He has studied at Livingstone College and Fayetteville State University. He was always a bright and intuitive child and especially interested in hearing the word. It was no surprise to his parents when he accepted the call to ministry at the tender age of 15 and received his first appointment to pastor New Zion A.M.E. Zion church in Lisbon, North Carolina, at 17 years old. Since then, he has held pastorates at Shady Grove A.M.E. Zion Church, and Rehoboth A.M.E. Zion Church, Rock Hill A.M.E .Zion Church, and St. Stephen Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church, all in North Carolina. He was transferred to New England in June 2019, serving at Spottswood A.M.E. Zion Church in New Britain, Connecticut. In February 2023, he was assigned to The Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church in Hartford.
Steve Courtney has been a journalist for 40 years, largely at the Hartford Courant, and won the 2009 Connecticut Book Award for Joseph Hopkins Twichell: The Life and Times of Mark Twain’s Closest Friend (University of Georgia Press). He is also the author of ‘The Loveliest Home That Ever Was’: The Story of the Mark Twain House in Hartford (Dover Publications);and ‘We Shall Have Them With Us Always’: The Ghosts of the Mark Twain House (Paige Compositor Press). He co-edited, with Peter Messent, The Civil War Letters of Joseph Hopkins Twichell: A Chaplain’s Story, and with both Messent and Harold K. Bush, The Letters of Mark Twain and Joseph Hopkins Twichell, both published by the University of Georgia Press. He has been both publicist and Curatorial Special Projects Coordinator at The Mark Twain House & Museum, where he founded the museum’s Writing Program and Twainian lecture series, The Trouble Begins.
