History grounds you in who you are.  -Noelle Trent, PhD

Have you ever wished that you could sit down with a historian of United States history?  Meet Noelle Trent.  She’s spent her entire career studying the history of our country with a focus on the African American experience.  A “publichistorian,” Noelle has worked at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African History & Culture in Washington, DC, and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, where she spearheaded MLK50 to commemorate the life, mission, and impact of Dr. Martin Luther King on the 50th anniversary of his assassination.  These days, you will find her at the Museum of African American History/Boston & Nantucket, where she proudly serves as the President & CEO.  www.maah.org. The daughter of a minister and a teacher, Noelle and her sisters were raised in the Baptist Church in Westchester, Pennsylvania, where her mother started an afterschool program rooted in teaching children about black history.   Noelle credits her parents with planting the seed that would become her passion and her profession as a historian. Says Noelle:  “When you grow up in a community with a lot of history around you, you need to have people around you to point it out.”   From what it meant to be an abolitionist in the 1800s to the founding of the nation’s first school for black children in 1835, to the story behind “Watch Night” services and the Jim Crow era, this episode is a tutorial in African American history. #blackhistory #MLK #CivilWar #emancipationproclamation#thestorybehindhersuccess