The Prospect for Freedom: An American Human Rights Story

Join us at 6pm on Friday 11/20/2026, to hear from award-winning biographer, public historian, and documentary filmmaker Jean-Paul Benowitz. He will share the story of a dynamic civil rights leader from Central Pennsylvania, who was nearly lost to history: William Wilbur Miller Barbour (1908-1957).

The evening will bring together two works. The first is Benowitz’s biography, William Wilbur Miller Barbour: A Faith Full Witness for Human Rights, recently published by Santos Books, and winner of two 2026 Storytrade Book Awards. The second is a companion documentary, The Prospect for Freedom: W. Miller Barbour’s Human Rights Journey, honored at the 2026 Susquehanna Film Festival.

“A book that speaks powerfully to our present moment in a dozen different ways.” (Tobin Shearer, Professor of History and Director of African American Studies, University of Montana)

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Jean-Paul Benowitz will open with a talk on Barbour’s life and the research behind the biography. We will then screen the final twenty minutes of The Prospect for Freedom.

A panel discussion and audience questions will conclude the evening. Benowitz will be joined by Mechelle Johnson-Reeves, an Elizabethtown College honors student and Stamps Scholar who helped create the film, and three of Barbour’s descendants: his granddaughters Deborah Neil and Renee Whitby and his great-grandson Paul Neil. The family members will travel from the Philadelphia area for the occasion.

This event is the closing program in the Midtown Scholar Bookstore’s America’s 250th Literary Celebrations Series.

 

ABOUT THE STORY

On 17 May 1954, William Wilbur Miller Barbour was driving east across the Mojave Desert when a radio bulletin brought the news. The Supreme Court had struck down school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education. He pulled to the shoulder and wept. Then he drove on, toward the harder question his whole career had prepared him to ask: what now?

Barbour’s journey began in Middletown, Pennsylvania, where his parents settled during the Great Migration. In 1932 he graduated from Elizabethtown College as one of its first African American students. His faith drew at once on the Anabaptist-Pietist tradition of the Church of the Brethren and the prophetic tradition of the AME Church.

For twenty-five years, Barbour carried this twofold formation into the contested cities of mid- century America. He built fair employment coalitions in Denver, documented racial discrimination across the American West, and served as an executive with the National Urban League. He also developed the idea of the integrator: a person who steps into the space between legal change and human transformation and patiently builds the conditions for genuine community.

Benowitz pieced together this forgotten life from archival records at Elizabethtown College and beyond and from conversations with Barbour’s descendants. Working with two honors students through the College’s summer research program, he then carried the story from the page to the screen. As the nation marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, Barbour’s witness speaks with fresh urgency.

What the Book and Film Bring to Light

• How a son of Great Migration parents in Middletown became one of Elizabethtown College’s first African American graduates in 1932

• How two religious traditions, the Church of the Brethren and the AME Church, together formed his faith and his public vocation

• Barbour’s years in Black baseball, from a Harrisburg club to the New York Black Yankees, whom he coached

• His graduation from the University of Pennsylvania in 1945, in the midst of his civil rights career

• His fair employment coalitions in Denver and his investigations of racial discrimination across the American West

• His leadership with the National Urban League, the organization he served as an executive

• His concept of the integrator, a framework for building true community after courtrooms and legislatures had done their part

• His response to Brown v. Board of Education, and the question it posed for the rest of his life

About the Author

Jean-Paul Benowitz is Director of Prestigious Scholarships and Fellowships and Public Heritage Studies at Elizabethtown College, where he has taught since 1993. A public historian and member of the Honors Program faculty, he specializes in twentieth-century American political history, civil rights, and presidential biography. He holds degrees from Eastern Mennonite University and Millersville University of Pennsylvania and completed doctoral studies at Temple University. A recognized authority on Anabaptist-Pietist history and the Historic Peace Churches of the mid- Atlantic region, Benowitz has published in Pennsylvania History and Pennsylvania Folklife. His books include Elizabethtown (Arcadia Publishing, 2015), Elizabethtown College (Arcadia Publishing, 2014), and his 2026 biography of Sarah Tyson Rorer, America’s first dietitian, which earned Second Place at the Spring 2026 BookFest Awards. He produced, directed, wrote, and edited The Prospect for Freedom. Benowitz chairs the Education Committee of the Historic Harrisburg Association, serves on the Advisory Board of the Underground Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, and holds the Smedley Award of the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County. He lives in Harrisburg.

About the Panelists

Mechelle Johnson-Reeves, an Elizabethtown College honors student and Stamps Scholar in the Class of 2027, served as the film’s digital imaging technician, marketing manager, and film impact strategist. She found and prepared the historic photographs and film footage seen on screen.

Two generations of Barbour’s descendants will share their family’s memories and perspective:

Deborah Neil and Renee Whitby, granddaughters of W. Miller Barbour, and Paul Neil, his great-grandson.

Honors and Endorsements

William Wilbur Miller Barbour: A Faith Full Witness for Human Rights

• Winner, Biography, 2026 Storytrade Book Awards

• Winner, Religion/Spirituality, 2026 Storytrade Book Awards

• Finalist, History, 2026 Storytrade Book Awards

• Henrik Syse, former Member and Vice Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, placed the book in the library of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, the human rights collection at Utøya, and the Peace Research Institute Oslo

Endorsements come from Henrik Syse (Peace Research Institute Oslo), Felipe Hinojosa (Baylor University), Mark Chapman (Fordham University), Regina Shands Stoltzfus (Goshen College), Tobin Shearer (University of Montana), and Richard Newton (University of Alabama).

The Prospect for Freedom: W. Miller Barbour’s Human Rights Journey

• First Honorable Mention, Best Documentary Film, Susquehanna Film Festival 2026

• Official Selection, Hollywood International Indie Film & Screenplay Awards 2026

• Semifinalist, Dumbo Film Festival (2027 edition)