LYNN — The African-American history exhibit on display in the public library main reading room offers a quick introductory course for patrons and residents looking forward to Black History Month.
Titled “Freedom’s Agenda: Chronicles of African-American Petitions to the Massachusetts Government 1600-1900,” the exhibit features 14 large display panels dispersed around the cavernous reading room.
The display takes about 20 minutes to read and intersects with Lynn history. Frederick Douglass, the orator and writer who lived in Lynn from 1841 to 1848, is featured on a panel recounting how train conductors forcibly removed Douglass from a whites-only train car in Lynn.
In keeping with the exhibit’s theme, Douglass petitioned the state to censure the railroad’s actions.
Another panel detailing the role American-Americans played in the Civil War references the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. The photograph gallery in the Grand Army of the Republic’s great hall on Andrew Street includes portraits of 54th veterans.
Children’s librarian Nicole Mcclain said the exhibit is on loan to the library through Feb. 29 from The Commonwealth Museum.
“I’m happy people can experience this and see the Lynn connection,” Mcclain said.
The exhibit overlaps Black History Month in February and offers opportunities for inquisitive adults and students meeting school report deadlines to connect African-American history to Lynn history.
The National Park Service lists homes on Broad, Boston and Nahant streets among the locations included on the Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses and hideouts aiding people escaping slavery in slave-holding states.
Mcclain said Nahant Street was dubbed “freedom alley” with at least three homes identified as waystops on the Underground Railroad. She said the exhibit also emphasizes pivot points in African-American history, including Elizabeth Freeman’s 1781 petition for freedom before a Massachusetts court and Massachusetts African-Americans’ efforts to sustain the Underground Railroad.
“Our patrons get to read and learn about all of this,” she said.
Lynn resident and Boston University student Kimberly Merida said the library is her favorite study spot. She hopes exhibits will be a frequent library feature.
“I think it’s great. It exposes you to resources I didn’t know they had in the library,” Merida said.
