Speaker series continues with look at Black history in Bartholomew County

The Bartholomew County Historical Society is hosting the third in its Evelyn Seward speaker series next week with “Telling Our Story: The Black American’s Search for Freedom in Bartholomew County.”

That will be at 6 on Thursday, Oct. 5th at Helen Haddad Hall on Franklin Street in downtown Columbus.

Brenda Pitts and Paulette Roberts will talk about the history of the Black Americans who came to Bartholomew County since the county’s start, why they came; and how their lives have changed over the decades.

Pitts is a lifelong Columbus resident who was vice president for human resources at Cummins and at the Cummins Foundation. After her retirement she became involved in researching her family history, and their migration here in the 1830s and 1840s.

Roberts was a teacher in Bartholomew Consolidated Schools for 33 years. She has directed many local Black history activities, is co-writing a Black history workbook, created a tutoring program at Second Baptist Church and served on the board of the local NAACP.

Pitts and Roberts, along with others, worked to research and to prepare the local African Americans in Philanthropy exhibit and the Bartholomew Black History exhibit.

Funding for the event is provided by the Evelyn Seward Speaker Series endowment.

Admission is free and you are invited to attend.