Richard Smith of the Thoreau Society Speakers' Bureau will present  “Civil Rights & Civil Disobedience”--a thought-provoking exploration of Thoreau’s participation in the Underground Railroad, his abolitionist views, night in jail and how his writings have historically inspired civil rights movements around the world.

Richard Smith has written about and lectured on antebellum United States history and 19th-Century American literature since 1995. He has worked in Concord as a public historian and a Living History Interpreter for 25 years and has portrayed Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond, around the country and in Canada. He has written eight books for Applewood Books and is a regular contributor to Discover Concord Magazine.

The Thoreau Society received a Mass Humanities Staffing Recovery Grant (2023-2025) in support of our Membership and Program Coordinator. Funding from Mass Humanities has been provided through the Mass Cultural Council.