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What We Do
Our Programs
Our Juneteenth Celebration occurs in June every year, and serves as our primary fundraising event, drawing well over 2500 people. Recent festivals hosted over 50 vendors and exhibitors, featured recognition awards, speakers, gospel and jazz music, and African dance. Children's activities include face painting, art coloring, horseback riding, and games. This noon to 6 pm event is FREE and open to the public.
​Soul in Motion dancers and drummers with stilt walker at Juneteenth
The Oral History Documentation Project falls under the supervision of our History and Research Committee. UCAC has collected over 100 interviews of St. Mary's county's African Americans. Focused mainly on senior citizens, the publicly available collection holds more than 140 individuals' stories. Use and duplication of these materials is restricted to educational and non-commercial purposes, unless written authorization is requested and granted in writing. UCAC has produced several exhibits on local history and published an award-winning book on the segregated school system in St. Mary's county.
In Relentless Pursuit of an Education editors Bob Lewis, Janice Walthour, and Merideth Taylor accept a 2007 Maryland African American Heritage Preservation Award on behalf of UCAC.
UCAC's Education and Outreach program includes our annual Juneteenth festival as well as ongoing exhibits, public presentations, and occasional workshops and bus trips. We maintain active partnerships with the St. Mary’s County Public Libraries, Schools, and Museum Division to find ways to inform our public of the accomplishments and the ongoing successes of local African Americans. Understanding our past through local African American stories, which have been omitted from traditional accounts of our history, is essential to knowing who we are today and how we will proceed into the future.
Folks who took advantage of a 2023 UCAC sponsored bus trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture pose for a group snapshot
Membership in UCAC provides unique access to our work and supports our mission with vital financial resources. Quarterly newsletters provide members with important announcements and updates on our programs.
Our Development program allows our Board of Directors to engage in vital learning opportunities, attend and present at conferences and symposiums, and to provide valuable training to engage the public. The Development Committee seeks funders and local sponsors in order to fund our programming and mission.
UCAC provides Scholarships in honor of founder and former president, Elmer Brown. Brown was not able to afford a higher education, but he felt strongly that education was essential for African American to pursue the American dream. Black high school graduates of St. Mary's county can apply for funding to support tuition at four-year colleges or formal vocational training programs.
UCAC is responsible for erecting two Monuments both built on county-owned property. The African American Monument at Elmer Brown Freedom Park celebrates the accomplishments of local African Americans.
A young Juneteenth visitor gets in touch with engraved names of USCT soldiers who fought for the Union in the Civil War
Nearby, in John G. Lancaster Park, is the United States Colored Troops Civil War Memorial Monument commemorating the "colored troops" from the Civil War. It pays special tribute to St. Mary’s County USCT soldiers, Pvt. William H. Barnes and Sgt. James H. Harris, and Joseph B. Hayden, a white Civil War sailor, who were each awarded the Medal of Honor.
Partnerships have been essential to UCAC's success. We are so grateful that different groups, including county government, have come together to achieve many goals - publications, exhibits, workshops and our annual Juneteenth Celebration.
A guest views paintings of USCT soldiers in a traveling exhibit made possible by a partnership with the St. Mary's County Museum Division.