LYNN — Last year, Lynn native Steve Matthews spent close to two weeks traveling through the South with the hope of finding his family roots. What he discovered about his mother’s birth family served as a catalyst for a new goal: preserving American democracy.
After uncovering a dark side of his ancestry, Matthews is teaming up with the Lynn Museum, the Grand Army of the Republic Trustees, and the Lynn Auditorium to organize a “Defending Democracy” event and panel on Oct. 4.
Last year, The Item published the 10-part “Finding Mary” series detailing Matthews’ trek through the South to uncover his family roots.
On a journey to learn about his adopted mother Mary Matthews’ birth parents, Matthews was troubled to learn that he, a lifelong union organizer and negotiator, was the descendant of slave owners.
Matthews, who was raised in Lynn and now resides in California, said that he was equally disturbed by the fact that some of his newly-discovered relatives still considered slavery a benign system.
“There was this person I stayed with for two and a half weeks at that time, and eventually I had to leave this person’s house because she was a defender of slavery to this day,” Matthews said. “she tried to claim that she was a patron of the arts and she supported young African American poets and artists and whatever she did some of that, but she thought that it was a benign system and people in the North having indentured servitude, that that was the real cruelty.”
The confederate culture he saw down South directly contradicted Matthews’ upbringing. His mother worked for 10 years as a poll worker and instilled the importance of equality and universal suffrage in him and his three sisters, Matthews said.
Inspired by his experiences in the South, and aware of that 2023 marked the 160th anniversary of three historic milestones — the Battle of Gettysburg, the Gettysburg Address, and the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation — Matthews spoke with GAR Museum Curator Wendy Josephs and Lynn Museum Executive Director Doneeca Thurston to start planning the Defending Democracy event.
The event will focus on Lynn’s crucial role in the abolitionist movement and teach about historical and current struggles to preserve democracy and equal rights in the United States.
After a morning tour of abolitionist graves at Pine Grove Cemetery, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln re-enactors will visit Lynn Schools. At 6 p.m., a subsequent program at the Lynn Auditorium will feature speeches from the re-enactors, as well as a panel of guest speakers who will discuss the importance of protecting democracy and preserving social justice in today’s world.
“There’s an attempt to make it harder to vote and particularly for African Americans in our country, there’s a banning of books that is going on, and it’s gotten worse in the past year, and there’s the whole anti-critical race theory stuff that’s being fought out in schools,” Matthews said. “We decided that we need to do something that respects the past and what grew out of that sacrifice. That became the idea of doing the Defending Democracy event.”
The panel, hosted by Thurston, will feature speakers such as Board President of the Essex County Community organization Rev. Dr. Andre Bennett and Associate Professor of History and African Studies at Northeastern University Dr. Kabria Baumgartner.
The panel will also include a representative from the American Library Association who will discuss book bans and the association’s Freedom to Read initiative. Former Beaufort, South Carolina Mayor Billy Keyserling, who gave Matthews a tour of the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park, will be on the panel as well.
“The social justice groups are going to be talking about the state of democracy today. Hopefully, we’re going to be able to get them to talk about things that the students can do and that the students and the parents can do together to actually work on some of these issues,” Josephs said.
Josephs said that the Defending Democracy organizers — herself, Matthews, and Thurston — have been in contact with Lynn Public Schools, which covered the costs of hiring the two re-enactors.
Additionally, Josephs said, the organizers have been in touch with the district’s assistant history curriculum director Kristen Tabacco to discuss ramping up the district’s history curriculum in the 2023-2024 school year.
Thurston said that the organizations involved with the Defending Democracy event are still looking for new guest speakers to join the Oct. 4 panel. Over the summer, Thurston said, the organizers will host fundraising events in preparation.
“This is a great program to look at the past, but then also look at what’s going on today in the present, and how we can work together as a community to make sure that everybody has equal rights when it comes to voting, and learning the histories of our country,” Thurston said.
