The African American Heritage Society of Williamson County will be hosting its November Porch Talk Event on Monday, November 24th, at 6:00 P.M. at the Williamson County Public Library, 1314 Columbia Ave. The monthly ‘Porch Talks’ series bring together experts in historic preservation and African American history and culture, along with other historians, community storytellers, and professionals who share knowledge and perspectives on diverse topics.
This month, the organization is pleased and honored to have as guest speaker, Tina Cahalan Jones, founder of the Slaves to Soldiers Project and who will be enlightening the community on the history of the United States Colored Troops who served in the Civil War from Williamson County and who championed the idea to honor them with brick pavers in Veterans Park in downtown Franklin. The organization felt that this would be a great opportunity to share this USCT history since on November 11th, we honor and recognize our veterans, and also on November 30th, 1864, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War took place right here in Franklin.
Tina Jones was born on an Army base during the Vietnam War and has always had a heart for veterans. After graduating from Vassar College and the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, she worked in Washington, DC, for Congress and a large nonprofit veterans’ service organization as a healthcare policy analyst. Jones earned her law degree from the University of Virginia and served as associate general counsel for Vanderbilt University. Jones has served on the board of the African American Heritage Society of Williamson County and Battle Ground Academy. In 2016, Jones founded the Slaves to Soldiers project to recognize African American Civil War veterans in Williamson County.
Jones will be joined by Bill Radcliffe, a United States Colored Troops reenactor and founding member of the Nashville-based 13th Regiment of the United States Colored Troops Living History Association. Radcliffe is a veteran of the Vietnam War, a retired Nashville firefighter and a descendant of Sgt. Maj. Edward Ratcliffe, who served in the 38th US Colored Infantry and received a Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery at Chaffins Farm, Virginia on September 29, 1864. In 2006, Bill Radcliffe served as the model for a statue to the US Colored Troops that was installed in the Nashville National Cemetery. It was the first statue of a USCT soldier in a national veteran cemetery. Bill also served as a model for USCT statues in other areas:Helena, Arkansas, Girardeau, Virginia and most recently in Clarksville, TN, near Fort Campbell.
The African American Heritage Society would like to thank the community for the amazing support in the many efforts to protect and preserve the rich African American history here in Williamson County. There is so much and so many more stories to be told, “Lest We Forget” AAHS is a 501c (3) organization; donations are tax-deductible and may be made online at aahswc.org. To make a donation through mail, checks should be made payable to the: African American Heritage Society, P. O. Box 1053, Franklin, TN. 37065.
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