Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

Jan Davidson

Jan Davidson earned her PhD from the University of Delaware in 2000. Her thesis explored the history of women workers on the Pennsylvania Railroad in World War I. Davidson worked at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (2000-2005) as the historian for the exhibit America on the Move, and is the co-author of On the Move, Transportation and the American Story. She has served as the Cape Fear Museum’s historian since 2005. She performs research into a wide range of topics for exhibits and Museum programs. Dr. Davidson is particularly interested in African American history, and is currently working on a project exploring enslavement in New Hanover County.

One Short March, One Long Journey

More than forty years ago, a small group of protesters set out for Raleigh to present a petition to the governor of North Carolina asking to reduce the prison sentences of a group known around the state, nation, and world as the Wilmington Ten.