Last summer, Rokeby Museum posted a Black Lives Matter sign near the museum entrance, only to have it – and nine more – taken down by unknown individuals. Elsewhere in Vermont, other Black Lives Matter signs and flags have met with similar fates.

Beyond the rhetoric, what are the issues behind the Black Lives Matter movement? Rokeby Museum is hosting a forum to explore some of these issues.

Each of four panelists – Vermont Black Lives Matter organizer Ebony Nyoni, historian Jim Ralph, economist Stephanie Seguino, and Vermont State Police Lieutenant Garry Scott – will discuss implicit bias. Ms. Nyoni will share updates on the activities of the Vermont Black Lives Matter chapter; Professor Seguino will report on her most recent research on racial disparities in policing; Professor Ralph will place the Black Lives Matter movement in the context of 20th-century civil rights; and Lieutenant Scott will tell us about State Police efforts to safeguard against racial bias in policing. Refreshments and discussion to follow.

This program, and Rokeby’s 2017 exhibit YOURS IN THE CAUSE: FACES OF RADICAL ABOLITION (July 9 – October 29), honors Rowland and Rachel Robinson of Rokeby, who fought for the freedom and full equality of millions of enslaved Americans in the decades before the Civil War.

$2 program only or free with Museum admission.