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Brown Bag Lunch: Enslaved and Free Black Craftsmen and the Construction of the United States Capitol

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Felicia A. Bell's research project, The Negroes Alone Work: Enslaved and Free Black Craftsmen and the Construction of the United States Capitol

Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Bell is researching Washington’s involvement in the conception, selection, and development of the federal city as well as his influence on the construction of the Capitol building. This work is part of her overall research on the enslaved and free Black craftsmen used to construct the United States Capitol.

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About the Presenter

Felicia Bell’s career has included leadership roles such as Director of Education and Programs at the United States Capitol Historical Society, Assistant Professor of History and the inaugural Director of Honors at Savannah State University, Director of Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum, Director of Public Engagement for the Smithsonian’s Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past, and Senior Advisor to the Director at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. 

In 2007, she provided expert witness testimony to Congress based on her doctoral dissertation research about the enslaved and free Black craftsmen used to construct the United States Capitol. She is a contributing author to Landscapes in the Making (Harvard University Press, 2025), where she delves further into her research topic. 

Dr. Bell received recognition by the House of Representatives of the State of Alabama for her distinguished work at the Rosa Parks Museum. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Savannah State University, a Master of Arts in historic preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design, and a Doctor of Philosophy in U.S. history from Howard University. At Mount Vernon, she is the recipient of the Black Women United for Action Fellowship.