The co-directors of the Milly Sawers Project will be at historic Lincoln School from 10:30 – 12:30 pm to show a film about Milly Sawyer and facilitate a discussion directly after the film. 

Milly is a newly unearthed account of an enslaved Black woman in Springfield, Missouri who won her freedom, circa 1835, through litigation in Greene County Court not long after the court was created and shortly before the Supreme Court would decide Dred Scott. The yellowed handwritten court manuscript remained shelved and boxed until the archivist freed Milly Sawyers again. Archivist Connie Forbis Yen and ( Jack) Giacomo Bologna, newspaper reporter, unleashed this piece of history in 2018 and we feel obligated and honored to enter the life of a woman who was diligent and bold enough to proclaim and imagine freedom and her inalienable rights. This is a blood story about our national, state, and local history. This is a story about skin. This is a story about a heroine, a freedom fighter, and a founder of the city of Springfield, Missouri, Milly Sawyers. The cast of nine consists of four white actors and five Black actors who respectfully and specifically identify as black, bi-racial or multi-racial. The film director, also a cast member, is a white female and the writer/ theater production director is a white female. The focal point of this ensemble production is a founding black matriarch of Springfield, Mo. Our hope is that Milly Sawyers will soon be publicly recognized.
[The Milly Project]