Maryland at 250: The Values That Shape Us (FREEDOM) presents “Freedom Is Not A Moment, It Is A Movement”

Thursday, April 16th | 6:00 PM-7:30 PM | Free Event

As Maryland commemorates its 250th anniversary, the semiquincentennial of the nation’s founding, this moment calls for more than reflection. It calls for reckoning. In partnership with the Maryland 400 Commission and the Maryland Center for History and Culture, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture invites you to the opening program in a bold new lecture series examining the values that have defined and challenged the state across two and a half centuries.

On Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 6:00 pm, acclaimed historian Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries will deliver a powerful keynote exploring how Black Marylanders have continuously shaped the meaning of freedom from 1776 to the present. From the self emancipation efforts of Frederick Douglass and the daring leadership of Harriet Tubman, to the intellectual activism of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and the ongoing work of community organizers, this lecture traces a long tradition of resistance, strategy, and collective action that continues to define Maryland today.

This program serves as a signature component of the Lewis Museum’s upcoming exhibition, The Lines We Cross: 250 Years of Maryland Forging America, which examines how individuals and communities throughout Maryland’s history have confronted the boundaries of race, citizenship, power, and belonging. Together, the exhibition and lecture series challenge us to consider: What lines have Marylanders crossed in pursuit of freedom and what lines remain before us?

At 250 years, Maryland’s story is not complete. It is still being written by those willing to question, to act, and to carry forward the work of freedom. Join us for an evening of history, insight, and purpose and take part in shaping what comes next.