McGuffey House and Museum’s monthly program will be held at 2 p.m. February 7 in the Auditorium of the Miami University Art Museum, 801 S. Patterson Avenue, Oxford.

The featured speaker will be Valerie Edwards Elliott. Her talk is titled, Oxford’s African American History: An Overview. African Americans were living in Oxford decades before the Civil War, and by the late nineteenth century they comprised almost 20% of the village population. By 1900, they had established multiple churches, held public office, and integrated the public school. During the 20th century, they continued the struggle for equal rights as the Great Migration brought new people from the South. Historical documents and firsthand accounts help tell this rich history.

Valerie Edwards Elliott received a B.A. in history from Miami University and an M.L.S. from Indiana University. She worked in academic and corporate libraries in California before moving to Oxford to head the Smith Library of Regional History for the Lane Public Libraries. For four years, she was also assistant archivist at Miami where she contributed to Miami’s Bicentennial history book. In addition to writing newspaper articles and texts for historic district walking tour booklets, she wrote of Images of America: Oxford, and completed Homes of Old Oxford: An Album of Photographs by Frank R. Snyder and Others. She retired in 2020.

The event is free and open to the public. For information, contact Steve Gordon at 513-377-3818 or Stevie Woolf at 513-529-1887.