On April 5, beginning at 3 p.m., the Martha’s Vineyard Museum will host a special afternoon honoring those Vineyarders who fought on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement.

On exhibit in the Council Room Gallery is The Civil Rights Movement on Martha’s Vineyard: A Public History Mobile Museum. Funded by the Mass Foundation for the Humanities, this photographic exhibit is on loan to the museum from the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard. Board members of the Heritage Trail will be on hand to answer questions about the exhibit.

As part of this celebration, the museum will present author Adelaide Cromwell discussing her new book Unveiled Voices, Unvarnished Memories: The Cromwell Family in Slavery and Segregation 1692–1972. The book documents the incredible journey of eight generations of her family from the slave markets in Annapolis to the halls of influence in education, law and publishing.

Adelaide
Adelaide Cromwell will discuss book at museum. — unspecified

Ms. Cromwell’s grandfather John W. Cromwell began the family archives from which the book is drawn — letters and documents that provide an unprecedented view of how one black family thought, strived and survived in American society from the 17th century through to the mid-20th.

Guests also may enjoy the 2007 annual heritage trail projects by Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School sophomores in the Kids’ Space Gallery.

The third attraction for the afternoon is an oral history exhibit of African Americans and Civil Rights Voices, mounted in the Oral History Gallery, featuring excerpts from interviews with prominent Island civil rights leaders.

Books will be available for purchase. Light refreshments will be served. Admission is $12, or $10 for members.

For details, call 508-627-4441.