JUNE 8:
Ellen Garrison: Scenes from an Activist Life
June 8 @ 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm
FREE
In 1835, 12-year-old Ellen Garrison marched in the Concord bicentennial parade, the only person of color to participate, launching her into a life of civil rights activism. Ellen Garrison: Scenes from an Activist Life, the latest Half the History film from Five Sisters Productions and Tufts University, highlights key moments in Garrison’s career, from the parade to her teaching in the South after the Civil War, to her challenging segregation in a Baltimore trail station waiting room in 1866, a century before Rosa Parks.
The film emerges as the town’s Concord 250 committee has sought to plan an expansive and inclusive commemoration of its history and role at the start of the American Revolution, and the semiquincentennial of “the shot heard round the world” coming up on April 19, 2025.
Garrison was born and raised in The Robbins House in 1823, granddaughter and daughter of formerly enslaved men including grandfather, Caesar Robbins, a farmer and Revolutionary War veteran, and father, Jack Garrison, who escaped slavery in New Jersey. A Town proclamation marking her 200th birthday on April 14, 2023, became the first formal Concord 250 event, followed in 2024 with a celebratory event with film preview at the historic Concord Armory.
This June 8, 2024, The Umbrella Arts Center will host the world premiere screening of Ellen Garrison: Scenes from an Activist Life, directed by Jennifer Burton and Ursula Burton and produced by Five Sisters Productions and Julie Dobrow, with the Tufts Production Team. The short film will be followed by a behind-the-scenes mini-documentary and an interactive discussion with members of the filmmaking team, Concord 250, and The Robbins House.
This event is free and open to the public, but with limited capacity, so RSVP in advance is requested at https://TheUmbrellaArts.org/Ellen. The Umbrella is ADA accessible, and provides free parking and free admission to its visual arts galleries.
THURSDAY, MAY 16:
The Life of Benjamin Ralph Kimlau – with Lt. Col. Love
Benjamin Ralph Kimlau (金勞少尉) (April 11, 1918 – March 5, 1944) was a Chinese American aviator and United States Air Force bomber pilot and native son of Concord. Kimlau was born in Concord on April 10, 1918, and lived in the area until he was 14. His father was a chemist, and his mother was an interpreter who had moved to the area from San Francisco.
The family later moved to New York City, and after a visit to China, he studied at Pennsylvania Military College in Chester, Pennsylvania, from 1938 to 1942. Upon graduation, he was promoted to Field Artillery 2nd Lieutenant. With America at war, Kimlau joined the US Army Field Artillery but later transferred to the United States Army Air Forces 380th Bombardment Group of the Fifth Air Force. After training as a pilot, he was stationed at Fenton Airfield in Australia. In Australia, Kimlau flew a B-24 Liberator bomber in missions during the New Guinea campaign. Lt. Benjamin Ralph Kimlau and his entire crew perished during their final mission at Los Negros Island in March 1944. The 380th Bombardment Group was awarded two Presidential Unit Citations for their outstanding performance and gallantry in battle.
Kimlau was honored by the New York City American Legion 1291, which named the post after him in 1962. The Benjamin Ralph Kimlau Memorial Gate (金勞紀念牌坊) was erected at Kimlau Square within Chatham Square in his memory. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Kimlau War Memorial as a landmark in June 2021.
Lt. Col. Love of the Massachusetts National Guard has done extensive research to reconstruct what we know of Kimlau’s family and the well-documented details of his final mission.
Join us for a discussion that will touch on what we can learn about Kimlau’s life, his time in the area, and the role of Asian American and Pacific Islander residents in the fabric of our nation and community.
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About the Speaker: Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Love is the Director of Historical Services for the Massachusetts National Guard and curator of the Massachusetts National Guard Museum in Concord. He has served as a soldier, NCO, and officer in the Army and the Army National Guard for 37 years in the field artillery and logistics branches. His education and interest in historical research and archival practice led to his current assignment, where he has the rewarding task of living up to the motto of the Massachusetts National Guard Museum, “Preserve, Educate, Inspire.”
This event is co-sponsored by Concord250, The Massachusetts National Guard Museum and Archives, and The Concord Free Public Library’s William Munroe Special Collections.
