Morehead State Eagle Black Male Mentorship presents ‘The Huddle: Juneteenth Edition’

Morehead State University’s Eagle Black Male Mentorship will present “The Huddle – Juneteenth Edition,” featuring Joseph McGill Jr. from 1:45 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, June 22. This virtual presentation is free and open to the public.    

View the event at https://moreheadstate.webex.com/moreheadstate/j.php?MTID=m675878ff0e237aa5f5f4072461ed8bad. 

Joseph McGill Jr. is a historian, historical re-enactor, consultant for the Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina, and founder of the Slave Dwelling Project (www.slavedwellingproject.org). The Slave Dwelling Project helps preserve African American slave dwellings while providing an enriching historical experience through a mix of living history programs, talks and presentations, and overnight stays in slave dwellings for participants.   

Dr. Silas Session, director of military initiatives, is also an advisor for Eagle Black Male Mentorship, a student organization created to provide community while increasing recruitment, retention and graduation rates for Black male students. Session collaborated with McGill as a young child during a historical re-enactment of the Civil War’s Battle at Fort Wagner, which inspired the 1989 film “Glory.” He said McGill’s extensive research, coupled with his numerous treks to the physical sites where history happened gives him that much more knowledge to share around the Juneteenth holiday. 

Juneteenth commemorates the date of June 19, 1865, a time when Union soldiers brought news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, approximately two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Southern States. On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law declaring Juneteenth a national holiday. 

“I think from an educational perspective, the way to put that together is very, very good. Experiential learning mixed with history,” Session said. “He likes to really inform. He does this around the country. I was thankful to really get him and to do this piece for us.”  

For more information on this event, contact Session at ssession@moreheadstate.edu or 254-319-2050.