Incredible Milestone – Caesar Robbins Educational Center a Reality
Posted on | May 6, 2010 | No Comments
Dear Friends of the Drinking Gourd Project,
We achieved an incredible milestone on April 27th. At Town Meeting Concord residents voted to support Warrant Article 35 (awarding the DGP $60,000.00 from the Concord Preservation Committee funds) and Article 36 (authorizing the Town Manager to lease us a small plot of land at the North Bridge Parking lot for 25 years for $1.00 per year). The vote was unanimous and received applause – a rare event in Concord Town Meeting history.
We have been so heartened and encouraged by the support you have shown us over the past year in our efforts to save the Caesar Robbins House from demolition. Without your help, we would never have achieved any of our goals.
So – what did you help us to do?
- The Drinking Gourd Project is now a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, and can now do fund-raising apart from the Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council, which has generously been our ‘parent’ for the past three years.
- Developers Johanna and John Boynton, who have now completed purchase of the property on Bedford St, are going to donate the house to the Drinking Gourd Project.
These are huge milestones for us. We will own the house, have a perfect place to put it; and have enough money to begin the process of surveys, engineering, reports, permits and fees as well as stabilization and move for the house. All this is just the first step towards making our dream of the Caesar Robbins Educational Center a reality – and we will need your help to proceed.
Here are some of what we hope will be available!
- Continued development and visibility of the African, Abolitionist and Civil Liberties Heritage tours in Concord;
- Educational resources and programming for schools, visitors and community groups;
- Experiential learning about African residents’ contributions to Concord’s agricultural, political, and community life;
- Discussions and lectures on the institution of slavery and its aftermath here in Concord, as well as the movement toward freedom and acceptance of so many other residents;
- Workshops to study our current culture and the ways the institution of slavery and civil liberties violations affect us today;
- Continued research and documentation of early African , immigrant, and working class residents of Concord, and of the part played by the women of Concord in the anti-slavery movement;
…and much more!
We need your help to make this dream a reality. Making a donation to the project makes you part of the history of Concord, this country and the world.
All donations are welcome. Please consider the following donation levels:$100.00 (Patriot); $250.00 (Freedom); $500.00 (Liberty); $1,000.00 (Visionary) $10,000.00 plus (Dreamer).
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
The Drinking Gourd Project