Join us at the NYS Museum for a showing of Searching for Timbuctoo (2021), a film by writer and photographer Paul Miller. In 1846 New York State enacted a law requiring African American men to own $250 worth of property to vote. To circumvent this unjust law, radical abolitionist Gerrit Smith gave away 120,000 acres of land in Essex and Franklin Counties to 3,000 free Black men, thereby qualifying them to vote. Searching for Timbuctoo tells the history of this forgotten settlement and New York State on the brink of the Civil War and follows an archaeology team looking to unearth evidence of the community. (The 55-minute film will run on a loop throughout the day.)
View the trailer: https://www.timbuctoofilm.com/
