Odds and ends

An article in the July/August AAA Michigan Living magazine on how downtown Detroit has made a comeback prominently features a photo of the Underground Railroad monument on the Riverwalk at Hart Plaza, properly linking the Detroit River with freedom.

At the Freedom Museum in Chicago's McCormick Tower -- itself the repository of historic artifacts from around the world embedded in three of its walls -- of all events that could re recounted in the section on African-Americans is the visit by Michigander Sojourner Truth to President Lincoln in October '64 [http://www.freedommuseum.us/html/freedomforall.php?section=1&part=1].

At a concert in Millenium Park's Pritzker Pavilion last week, part of a program on American music during the freedom holiday week, a work by William Grant Still entitled "In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died For Democracy" was played by the Grant Park Orchestra. Composed in 1930, some seven decades after the Civil War, its title evokes the unfulfilled promise of the new birth of freedom. Still attended Oberlin College (among several post-secondary institutions) -- was he there when Bruce Catton was (1916-17)?

Comments

[William J. Zick]

Congratulations on identifying the title and meaning of the William Grant Still composition "In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy", which was played at the holiday concert of the Grant Park Orchestra. I have linked to your post from http://AfriClassical.blogspot.com/ Earlier reviews of the concert mentioned that works of William Grant Still were performed, but neglected to give the poignant title "In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy". I invite your readers to explore the William Grant Still page at www.AfriClassical.com, which has had the benefit of contributions from the composer's daughter Judith Anne Still.

[Mannie Gentile]

Jack,

What is the current status of Historic Fort Wayne?

I know that it sat in a state of dormancy for over a decade as the state needed to turn its funding attention elsewhere. Owing to the current economic realities I don't imagine things have gotten any better for Michigan's premier Civil War site (no, I haven't forgotten about Fort Wilkins).

Mannie