The W. Miller Barbour Lecture Series, aimed at restoring the legacy of local civil rights pioneer W. Miller Barbour (1908–1957), is gaining momentum across Pennsylvania.
Led independently by public historians Eric Schubert and Abigail Sholes, the Lecture Series is expanding into communities across Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and Cumberland counties – bringing Barbour’s overlooked story back into public view through these lectures and publicly accessible archival research.
With media and governmental recognition, the series officially launched June 17 at the Hershey History Center with “An Unsung Hero of Civil Rights: The Legacy of W. Miller Barbour,” marking the beginning of this broader effort to reconnect Pennsylvanians with one of the region’s most overlooked historical figures.
A Middletown native and graduate of Elizabethtown College, Barbour later earned his master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania before building a distinguished career in human relations and civil rights advocacy in Philadelphia, Denver, and Los Angeles. His work with the National Urban League and early community-based anti-violence initiatives placed him at the forefront of twentieth-century urban reform, helping shape conversations around racial equity, violence prevention, and urban community development.
Despite those contributions, Barbour’s story and his prospect for freedom remains largely absent from both Pennsylvania history and broader civil rights narratives. This absence is exactly what Schubert and Sholes hope to change. The pair have spent years uncovering Barbour’s life through public archival collections, institutional records, newspaper accounts, and community history. This research has helped piece together a fuller picture of a man whose influence stretched far beyond Central Pennsylvania.
The lecture series is about more than historical recovery. It is about making local history accessible, as Barbour’s story belongs especially to Pennsylvania. It’s a local story with national significance – people deserve to know the impact someone from our region had on civil rights and human relations across the country.
The W. Miller Barbour Lecture Series has already received recognition from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate, with official Citations from State Rep. Tom Mehaffie and State Sen. Patty Kim – honoring both Barbour’s legacy and this ongoing public history effort to bring his story back into public conversation.
Thursday, July 16
- Event: Middletown’s Human Rights Champion
- Location: Lower Swatara Fire Department (Lower Swatara Twp. Historic Preservation Society)
- Time: 6:00 p.m.
- Website: lsthistoricpreservation.org
Sunday, July 19
- Event: Lancaster County Leader: W. Miller Barbour
- Location: AAHSSCP / Griscom Education Center, Thaddeus Stevens College
- Time: 3:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 5
- Event: Championing Justice: The Life of W. Miller Barbour
- Location: Todd Hall, Cumberland County Historical Society
- Time: 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Wednesday, October 14
- Event: W. Miller Barbour: Lancaster County Legacy
- Location: Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County
- Time: 6:00 p.m.
The W. Miller Barbour Lecture Series, organized by Schubert & Sholes, hopes to continue building partnerships with historical societies, museums, libraries, and educational institutions across the region to develop future programming to share the word about Barbour’s incredible contributions to our society. The goal is simple – to ensure Barbour’s legacy is no longer forgotten!
