JOHN BROWN 150th COMMEMORATION
North Elba (Lake Placid), NY

DECEMBER 4-5
Symposium: John Brown: Slavery and the Legacy of Violence in Our Time 

DECEMBER 6-8
Reenactments and Memorial Service
Lake Placid/North Elba, Westport, Elizabethtown, NY 

Dubbed one of the most controversial figures in American history, John

Brown, 150 years after his death, remains a stimulant to discussion on
the 
subject of slavery and the use of violence to achieve political and
social 
change. Who was John Brown?  To some, he was a terrorist, to others a 
martyr and the first to stand against the violence of slavery. To many,

his words and actions set our nation on the path to Civil War which 
reunified the nation with federal laws that abolished slavery. 

The abolitionist John Brown moved his family to North Elba (Lake
Placid) 
in 1849 to assist with the free black settlement called "Timbucto". Ten

years later, John Brown and his followers attacked the U.S. Arsenal at

Harper's Ferry in an ill-fated attempt to incite a slave revolt. He was

subsequently tried, convicted and executed, and Brown's body was 
transported back to his home in Lake Placid, New York in the
Adirondacks, 
and laid to rest. 

Join the discussion from December 4-8, 2009. Be part of the John Brown

Coming Home Commemoration, which includes a series of events that will

examine John Brown's impact on the country leading up to the civil war,

the use of violence, and on the ongoing efforts to end slavery and
human 
rights abuses in this country and worldwide; and re-enactments of his 
cortege home, body laying in state at the Essex County Courthouse,
burial 
at his farm, and memorial service.  

Distinguished presenters include:

* Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves

* Russell Banks, author

* Bernardine Dohrn, activist co-founder of the Weather Underground

* George Holmes, executive director of CORE
 
* John Brown descendant Alice Keesey Mecoy

* Maria Suarez, sold into slavery at age 16

* Margaret Washington, Sojourner Truth's America

* Louis DeCaro, Jr., author John Brown the Cost of Freedom

For more information and registration, go to
www.johnbrowncominghome.com.


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