Terrence Franklin Presents “Bending the Arc of History Towards Justice” at Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s 106th Annual Conference

 Partner Terrence Franklin will be presenting “Bending the Arc of History Towards Justice: Lucy Sutton Leads Her Family to Freedom” at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s 106th Annual Meeting and Virtual Conference on September 23, 2021.

Franklin was inspired by the 100th birthday of his great aunt, a community leader and spouse of a Tuskegee Airman, to search for the last will and testament that freed their family from slavery. When Franklin located the will, which freed his fourth great-grandmother Lucy and her eight children and six grandchildren, Franklin also discovered that his decades of training as a trusts and estate litigator, had mystically prepared him to understand the court records that revealed that a white ancestor fought in court to keep the family beaten and enslaved. That discovery, in turn, led Franklin to understand his mission, “To Bend the Arc of History Towards Justice” by sharing his family’s story and others like it, as widely as possible.

In this program, Franklin recaps the experience of his family’s escape from slavery, previously told in 2017 at the National Underground Railroad Conference in Maryland, and adds to it the stories of three other black women who also fought for their families in the antebellum south, and who may very well have helped Lucy and her family on their exodus.

The mission of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®) is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community.

To learn more about the conference and register, click here.