Thursday, June 13, 2019

Special presentation of Purchased Lives exhibit on June 30

The Purchased Lives exhibition has been at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center since February, and will be there until August 25. The link in the preceding sentence will take you to the Skokie museum's website, where you can purchase tickets to see the exhibition on any convenient date prior thereto.

But the Jewish Lawyers Association of Illinois, the Decalogue Society of Lawyers, the Illinois Judicial Council, and the Cook County Bar Association are co-hosting a special presentation of the Purchased Lives exhibition on Sunday, June 30, from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Admission for this special presentation is free, but reservations must be made by emailing lyoung@cookcountybar.org.

Registrants will be invited to participate in networking and refreshments from 1:00 to 2:00. At 2:15, Dr. Leslie M. Harris, Professor of History at Northwestern University, will speak about the continuing legacy and impact on the slave trade in the 21st Century, including the continuing relationship between the slave trade and current issues of racial bias and injustice. Docent-led tours of the exhibit will be available beginning at 2:45.

The Purchased Lives exhibition addresses the pain and injustice of the American domestic slave trade, illuminating just how widespread the practice of slavery was in American life, as well as its impact on enslaved families across the country.

The exhibition, originally curated by The Historic New Orleans Collection, showcases more than 75 original artifacts, slave narratives, and oral histories. Through interactive displays, visitors engage directly with historical records by tracking the shipment of more than 70,000 people to New Orleans. Purchased Lives also contains a collection of "Lost Friends" ads placed after the Civil War by newly freed people attempting to locate Illinois family members.

The sponsors of this special event also advise that registrants will also be able to experience Dimensions in Testimony, interactive 3·D holographic interviews with Holocaust survivors, their recollections now preserved for posterity.

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