Shirley Green, director of the Toledo Police Museum and adjunct professor of history at Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo, will present a talk based on her recent publication, hosted by the Department of History at BGSU as part of the university’s Black History Month program.
The lecture will be Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in Room 207 of the Bowen-Thompson Student Union at BGSU. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Green will speak about her recent book, “Revolutionary Blacks: Discovering the Frank Brothers, Freeborn Men of Color, Soldiers of Independence” (Westholme Publishing; 2023).
The narrative follows the lives of William and Benjamin Frank, two brothers who enlisted in Second Rhode Island Regiment during the American Revolutionary War in the spring of 1777. Their military experiences quickly diverged, and Green explores their stories to provide context and substance to the Black experience during the war years, as well as underscore the significant distinction between free Blacks in military service and those who had been enslaved, and how they responded in different ways to the harsh realities of racism.
