For Citizens United’s first event in its Social Film Series, the organization will be celebrating Black History Month on Thursday, February 15, with a screening of the short film Treasures of New Jersey: The Peter Mott House Underground Railroad Museum, produced by PBS.

The event will take place at Trinity AME Church, 1107 Bridgeton-Millville Pike, Bridgeton, NJ 08302. Registration is required and you may register at CUMauriceRiver.org

Built in the mid-1840s, the Peter Mott House is one of the few surviving Underground Railroad sites owned by an African-American abolitionist in an African-American community. Located in what was then Snow Hill, now known as Lawnside, the Lawnside Historical Society continues to search for more information on the Motts and preserves their legacy for future generations.

Following the film there will be a presentation by Ellen D. Alford, about her recently published book Abolition and the Underground Railroad in South Jersey: Not Without a Fight. Alford is a native South Jersey resident and local historian who researches and writes about the Underground Railroad, slavery, abolition and Harriet Tubman in South Jersey. She is a former newspaper correspondent, public school educator and university administrator. She has won numerous journalism awards, including the Lloyd P. Burns Award for Public Service from the New Jersey Press Association. Alford is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C. with a degree in English/Communications and has pursued graduate studies in American history at Rutgers University-Camden, where she was awarded the A&S Academic Excellence. Alford is a member of the National History Honor Society.

She will be selling and signing books starting at 6 p.m., so plan to come early if you’d like to get a signed copy. Books are $24.99 plus tax (cash only).

Bridgeton Mayor Albert Kelly will also be present to speak on his research on a community of freedom seekers that lived in Gouldtown.