SU's Gehnrich Presents 'The Great War' Lecture Tuesday, November 7

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University’s Fulton Public Humanities lecture series continues with the World War I presentation “The Great War” with Dr. Stephen Gehnrich of the Biological Sciences Department 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 7, in Conway Hall Room 153.

The evening begins with a screening of segments from the PBS American Experience documentary The Great War, in anticipation of SU’s 2018 African American History Month series theme “African Americans in Times of War.”

The video describes the experiences of African American soldiers, whose stories of participation in the war rarely have been told. Their fight against racial discrimination, as well as their fight against the enemy on the Western Front, is explored.

Afterward, Gehnrich leads a discussion on the issues featured in the documentary. He has visited many World War I battlefields in France and Belgium, and is an active member of the Western Front Association, an international organization dedicated to the war’s study and remembrance.

His research made national headlines last spring when he discovered that the name of Herbert Renshaw, a U.S. Navy crewman from Wicomico County who was lost at sea, did not appear on the American Battle Monuments Commission’s rolls of lost-at-sea and missing-in-action soldiers.

With the help of the Doughboy MIA Team, a group of volunteer researchers dedicated to identifying and recovering World War I servicemen who are still unaccounted for nearly a century after the war ended, Gehnrich was able to have Renshaw added to that official list. His story was featured on the History Channel’s website and picked up by media including The Wall Street Journal, among others.

Admission is free and the public is invited. For more information call 410-543-6450 or visit the SU website at www.salisbury.edu.