CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Austin Peay State University’s annual Asanbe-Eichhorn Symposium will take place at 1 p.m. on March 19 in Morgan University Center Rooms 303-305. The free public event will feature a keynote address from author and genealogy expert John F. Baker Jr., followed by a panel discussion.
Baker’s book, The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation: Stories of My Family’s Journey to Freedom, recounts his African American ancestors’ story and unearths the history of the Robertson County plantation where they were once enslaved. His keynote address will explore the book’s narratives and the journey that led to its creation.
This extensive project was years in the making. When Baker was in seventh grade, he found a photograph of four formerly enslaved people in a social studies textbook, leading him to discover they were his great-great-grandparents…