MHAA and NOVA Parks are bringing in noted historian Marie Tyler-McGraw for the next installment of the partnership series of programs, "Conversations in History."

Tyler-McGraw, the author of An African Republic: Black and White Virginians in the Making of Liberia, will speak about local abolitionist and women's right activist Margaret Mercer.  Mercer operated a woman's school at Belmont Plantation east of Leesburg.  Mercer also staunchly opposed slavery and helped raise funds to colonize and educate African American men and women to Liberia.  She even taught her black workers to read and write.

Marie Tyler-McGraw is a public historian and writer in Washington, D.C. who has worked as a historian at the Valentine Museum (Richmond History Center), Richmond, Virginia; the National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C.; and the Office of Chief Historian, National Park Service, Washington, D.C. She has served as consultant for dozens of public history projects in museums, at historic sites, and in educational institutions across the United States and has lectured widely in the United States, as well as in England, France, Italy, and Spain. A Ph.D. in American Studies from George Washington University, she is the author of three books of Virginia history. Her most recent publication, An African Republic, is joined with the website project sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and produced by the Virginia Center for Digital History.

The program is $10 for adults and $5 for students.  It begins at 7:00 pm at St. David's Episcopal Church and School, formerly the Belmont Chapel and School founded by Mercer.