Freedom Lost, Freedom Won brings to life our nation’s racial history, told through one man’s family story, starting with his great-grandfather’s freedom from slavery in 1851 through to today. Our featured author, Eugene Robison, the Pulitzer Prize–winning former Washington Post columnist, will be joined by moderator Lee Hawkins, author of I Am Nobody’s Slave.

On March 27, 1829, in Charleston, South Carolina, a wealthy white planter and entrepreneur purchased four enslaved African Americans. One of them was journalist Eugene Robinson’s great-great-grandfather, a boy called Harry. Put to work as a blacksmith, Harry achieved his own freedom before the Civil War. He witnessed victorious Union troops marching through Charleston, ending slavery and guaranteeing liberty for Black people—only on paper, though, and only for a time. Delving into a rich archive of Black narratives, Robinson traced the arc of his familial lineage through the repeated cycles in which African Americans have fought their way upward toward freedom and opportunity, been forced back down again, and renewed their determined climb. Freedom Lost, Freedom Won sets Robinson’s extensive findings into the larger historical context, presenting our country’s history through his family’s story of struggle and survival. Don’t miss Robinson’s presentation and discussion with journalist and author Lee Hawkins.

Eugene Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist, former columnist, and associate editor of The Washington Post, author, and political analyst. His prior positions included foreign editor, London correspondent, and South American correspondent. Born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, he graduated from the University of Michigan and worked at the San Francisco Chronicle before joining The Washington Post.

Lee Hawkins is a journalist, 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist, and author of I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free. He created and hosted What Happened in Alabama and Unlocking the Gates: How the North Led Housing Discrimination in America, both audio series he co-produced with American Public Media. He is a 2026–27 Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute, part of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.

Presented in partnership with Boston Public Library and Museum of African American History