Underground Railroad Panel Discussion
Category: Events Calendar
Date and Time
- Thursday, Jan 8, 2026 7pm - 9:30pm
Location
The Slover
235 East Plume St
Details
A panel discussion moderated by Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, the Vice Chair of the Sail250® Virginia Executive Board of Directors, will examine the often-overlooked maritime dimensions of the Underground Railroad, exploring how Virginia's waterways served as critical pathways to freedom for enslaved people seeking liberation.
A panel discussion moderated by Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, the Vice Chair of the Sail250® Virginia Executive Board of Directors, will examine the often-overlooked maritime dimensions of the Underground Railroad, exploring how Virginia's waterways served as critical pathways to freedom for enslaved people seeking liberation.
Dr. Newby-Alexander, Endowed Professor of Virginia Black History and Culture at Norfolk State University, will be joined by two other distinguished scholars – Dr. Cheryl LaRoche, associate research professor in Historic Preservation at the University of Maryland, and Dr. Timothy Walker, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Dr. LaRoche is the author of Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance and the forthcoming Apostle of Liberation: AME Bishop Paul Quinn and the Underground Railroad. Her multidisciplinary work has earned recognition from the Maryland Historical Trust and the Society of Historical Archaeology.
Dr. Walker, editor of Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad, brings expertise in Atlantic World maritime history and has collaborated with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on historical climate research using 19th-century whaling vessel logs.
