The new African American Heritage Walk exhibit has moved to the Cerino Center at Chestertown’s waterfront. The Heritage Walk is an ongoing project of the Historical Society of Kent County and features more than 30 sites in downtown Chestertown dating from the 1700s to the present.
The Cerino Center is free and open to the public seven days each week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Copies of the Heritage Walk brochure are free, compliments of the Kent County Economic and Tourism Development Office.
The exhibit will be available throughout August 2022 in honor of the 9th Annual Legacy Day celebration, August 19-21, 2022. Legacy Day is produced by Sumner Hall in collaboration with the Historical Society of Kent County. This year’s event celebrates the 1,500 African American veterans from the Revolutionary War through the Vietnam War. Brochures about Legacy Day 2022 are also available at the Cerino Center for free.
“It is extremely fitting for this exhibit to now be at the Cerino Center,” said Society president Barbara Jorgenson. “The story of African American life in Kent County begins at the waterfront of Scott’s Point where many arrived enslaved and others sparked the growth of what became a flourishing free black community.”
The 2022 Legacy Day exhibits can viewed at the Bordley History Center, home of the Historical Society, at 301 High Street—just three blocks uptown from the waterfront. The two window exhibits there are always open. The indoor museum exhibits are open Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission is free.
Copies of the 40-page book, Community, Prosperity, & Resilience: African Americans in Chestertown, Maryland, 1700s to the Present, with additional information about the Heritage Walk, may be purchased at the Bordley History Center for $5.00. Proceeds of the sale benefit the digitization of the Society’s local history archive.
For further information on Legacy Day 2022 is available on the Sumner Hall website at www.sumnerhall.org. Sumner Hall is located at 206 S. Queen Street, also just blocks from the Cerino Center.
For further information contact:
director@kentcountyhistory.org
410-778-3499
