Black History Month speaker draws on family genealogy
Regina E. Mason
- January 21, 2010
In honor of “Black History Month,” the Cal State East Bay Friends of History will host Regina E. Mason, great, great, great granddaughter of pioneering autobiographer William Grimes at noon Wednesday, Feb. 17.
Her presentation, “The Life of William Grimes and My Journey to Him,” is scheduled to run until 1:15 p.m. in the Biella Room of the University Library on the Hayward Campus of CSUEB, 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd. Admission is free, but campus parking is $7 per day per vehicle.
Mason, coeditor of a new edition of the “Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave,” (first published in 1855), spent 15 years researching Grimes’ life, his wife, their children, and the communities in which they lived.
No other slave narrative has been recovered, researched, and annotated by a slave’s descendant until now, according to Dee Andrews, CSUEB history professor and event organizer.
“Ms. Mason, a Californian, was exploring her family's genealogy when she discovered she was a descendant of the author of the first memoir of a fugitive slave ever published in the United States,” said Andrews.
In her campus lecture, Mason will describe her detective work of scholarship and self-discovery, and how she came to co-edit the new edition, that has been described by David W. Blight, a specialist in African American History at Yale University, as, ". . . a unique work of historical recovery, humanity, and scholarship."
Cal State East Bay welcomes persons with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodation upon request. Please call (510) 885-3207 well in advance if accommodation is needed.