Although Reconstruction-era constitutional amendments and federal legislation extended political and civil rights to African Americans, northern states were slow to offer the full enjoyment of those rights to their black citizens. Set in 1874,  “Cross-Examined” explores the experience of two African American Iowa mothers—Charlotta Smith, a former slave, and Mary Jane Dove, the wife of a respected minister—who were determined to end the unconstitutional exclusion of black children from Keokuk’s public schools.

Join us for a dramatic reading of the play and discussion with the actors and historians who brought this narrative to life.