The executive director of James Monroes home, highland, and she has been the executive director there since 2012. I see that the college of william and mary has moved into their backyard because highland is a department of the college of william and mary. Prior to assuming the leadership at highland, she worked as Archaeological Research manager at monticello down the road from 19992012, so she has been on that road for a long time. When i was in law school, i lived on brown mountain, so i know the area very well. She earned her ba magna cum laude from the university of arizona, then headed east and did her phd at the university of North Carolina chapel hill, and she has also taught at chapel hill in the university of virginia, so we are delighted this afternoon to have sara bonharper, executive director of highland. [applause] sara bonharper what a warm welcome. Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here and a pleasure to be on this lineup and a group that knows so much about monroe. I am
American history and culture opened in 2016. Located on the National Mall near the washington monument, the museum has quickly become one of the most visited in the Nations Capital with capacity crowds almost every day. Up next, in the second of a twopart look of the history galleries, we tour the exhibits titled the era of 18771968. And hear the history of africanamericans after the civil war. After the end of the civil war, African Americans released from their bondage immediately sought about creating their own lives with their own resources. One of the first things many of them tried to do was reconnect with family members who had been separated during slavery. They traveled the country looking for their relatives. They placed ads in newspapers, primarily churchrelated newspapers, seeking to find kinfolk. They wrote letters to the freedmens bureau. They wanted to reconnect and build communities among themselves. One of the major elements of that process was creating all black towns