Columbus State community geographers are looking for stories. Are you related to the over 100 families who migrated from the lower Chattahoochee Valley (Columbus to Eufaula) to the West African nation of Liberia between 1850 and 1900? Or do you know someone who is related? If you aren’t sure you can review a detailed list of known emigrants at the following link: https://aziliafilms.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/chattahoochee-valley-emigrants-to-liberia-1853-1890.pdf.

Please join us and share family stories with us so we can better understand our region’s long-lived relationship with Liberia, and connect our contemporary communities. Any objects (pictures, letters, family bibles) that can be scanned will be most welcome. Your documents and stories will be shared with the community through a digital humanities project published at Columbus State University’s archives in early 2020. These materials might also be used in a future public television documentary.

Community geographers will be hosting two Liberia Migration Project History Harvests at the following dates and times: Saturday, September 28th: 10 am to 2 p.m. at the Mildred Terry Public Library on 640 Veterans Parkway, Columbus, GA 31901, and 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Eufaula Community Center on 530 Lake Drive, Eufaula, AL 36027

Dr. Amanda Rees, Professor of Geography at Columbus State University and her students will  host the two history harvests along with the historian and creative director at Azilia Films, Matt McDaniel who is making a documentary of this region’s remarkable history.