An Unsung Hero of Civil Rights: The Legacy of W. Miller Barbour
An Unsung Hero of Civil Rights: The Legacy of W. Miller Barbour
Wednesday, June 16 | 6pm to 7:30pm.
Presented by Eric Schubert, public historian.
A program about William (Wilbur) Miller Barbour (1908–1957) who was a pioneering Pennsylvania human rights leader whose activism helped define mid-20th-century civil rights goals.
About the program
Dauphin County’s Human Rights Champion: W. Miller Barbour (1908-1957)
A Dauphin County native, W. Miller Barbour became one of the first African American graduates of Elizabethtown College and the first African American college football player in Lancaster County. His upbringing and education in the Middletown, Hummelstown, Hershey, and Elizabethtown areas, including setting these firsts, helped shaped his incredible career in social work which was to come.
After earning a master’s in social work from the University of Pennsylvania during World War II, Barbour led programs reducing gang violence and later worked with the National Urban League in Denver and Los Angeles, where he championed racial economic justice. Barbour foresaw later civil rights legislation which would come to fruition with Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr, however, he unfortunately died in 1957 before the full fruits of his labor could reveal themselves.
Bio
Eric Schubert is an internationally recognized genealogist and forensic genetic genealogist. A graduate of Elizabethtown College with a B.A. in History and a graduate of Millersville University of Pennsylvania with an M.A. in History, he is currently on the Board of Directors of The Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County.
Eric’s journey helping individuals through genealogy began at the age of ten and has led to countless reunifications and solved cold cases. Features include People Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Good Morning America, and more. As a White-House Historical Association Next-Gen Leader, his public history work and nationally-featured research focuses on topics throughout Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the Marietta area, Presidential history, as well as local biography.