Our July 27, 2026 Meeting

Our July 2026 meeting will be on Monday, July 27, 2026, at 6:30 pm at the lower level of the Farmington Library, on the corner of Grand River and Farmington Road.

Our July 27, 2026, Speaker wll be Dr. Roy E. Finkenbine, PhD – University of Detroit-Mercy.

Roy will tell the story of Jordan Anderson, an enslaved Tennessean who escaped to the contraband camps in Nashville. He worked as an orderly at Cumberland Military Hospital, while his wife, Mandy, worked as a nurse. A Union doctor befriended the Andersons and helped them move to Dayton, Ohio, where Jordan became the driver and personal servant of a prominent banker and Republican leader. The family gained attention in August 1865 when Jordan wrote to his former enslaver, praising freedom and calling for reparations for formerly enslaved people. His new employer made sure that the letter was circulated to newspapers and other publications across the United States and Europe. Jordan was the Grand Marshall for the 1870 city parade celebrating the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment giving black men the right to vote. The Andersons went from being slaves to having an MD in the family in one generation. Roy E. Finkenbine is professor of history and co-chair for the History Department at U of D-Mercy. He teaches several courses relating to Black History and the Civil War era. He has consulted on museum exhibits, documentary films, and television programs on African American history. During his first visit with us in 2024, Dr. Finkenbine gave an outstanding and convincing presentation on slavery being the cause of the Civil War.

The latest edition of our Newsletter is available here

MRRT: Who We Are

When & Where We Meet

We meet on the last Monday of the month (except in October, when we go on our Annual Field Trip, and December, when we traditionally do not meet) at the Farmington Community Library, Farmington Branch, 23500 Liberty St. Farmington, MI 48335. (248) 553•0300 Meetings start at 6:30 p.m.

• Get Driving Directions to the Farmington Branch from MapQuest.
  
  
• Farmington Branch Library Location on Google Maps

What We Do

We meet monthly to hear from our members on the latest books, issues of preservation, and other items of Civil War interest. At each meeting, a keynote speaker provides a presentation on a Civil War topic. A monthly newsletter is send by email and also snail-mailed to members.

In addition, each October we take our Annual Field Trip, in which MRRT members travel to a Civil War battlefield for a weekend tour. Though the COVID-19 Pandemic has put a damper on our 2020 and 2021r Field Trips, we resumed in 2022.

Join Us—Become A Member

The monthly program is open to all, but only members receive the monthly newsletter and can participate in the MRRT annual field trip. Annual membership dues are $5 for students and $25 for all others. The dues are used to cover expenses for speakers, facilities, preservation and administrative costs. Checks should be made out to Jeanie Graham and can be mailed to her home at 29835 Northbrook, Farmington Hills, MI 48334-2326. The bank does NOT like checks made out to the Roundtable. Our checks may also be brought to our monthly meeting and given to Jeanie. Cash is always welcome.

For information on how to join the MRRT, come visit us at our monthly meeting, or email Jim Burroughs.

Past CWRT Online Lectures / Speakers

Did you know that all of the videos the Civil War Round Table Congress (CWRT) has recorded are available to you on our website? In all, there are well over 200 lectures by authors and historians, living history presentations, interviews with key Civil War community leaders, online classroom discussions and more. These lectures are pre-recorded YouTube-type videos made from the original Zoom presentations. You can browse them here. Be sure to click on the blue links that are in all caps serving as the title for each lecture.