Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely

Acclaimed activist-artist and speaker, Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely is a former Freedom Rider and working member of the historic Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (“SNCC”) that included among its founding members two civil rights legends—Rep. John Lewis, while a student protest leader in Nashville and the late Julian Bond, then a Morehouse College student—both of whom Peggy worked with during that history-changing time, along with other civil rights stalwarts.

Due to her grass roots activism for civil and voting rights, Ms. Preacely was jailed in Maryland and Georgia. She also worked in various communities across the Deep South in the ‘50s and ‘60s to facilitate community empowerment and register Black voters in underserved rural communities—many registering for the first time in their lives, let alone the first in their family to do so since the 15th Amendment passed in 1870 (and subsequently the 19th Amendment). She was also at the March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech, and precipitated the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Harlem, when Ms. Preacely returned to the North, she continued her activism by working against de facto segregated schools in Boston and protested The Vietnam War—a cause that Dr. King also took on… ​ Beyond her own involvement in history-making events, Ms. Preacely is the descendant of a historic multi-faceted family tree. Among her ancestors are: Sally Heming’s sister, Mary Hemings Bell; famed abolitionists Ellen & William Craft, who escaped slavery by Mrs. Craft passing as the white male owner of Mr. Craft; and esteemed early civil rights activist, William Monroe Trotter, whose home is now a National Historic Landmark.

Therefore, in addition to speaking about her experience as a SNCC member and Freedom Rider, Ms. Preacely conducts multi-media presentations on her historically-revered family. She further manifests her activism through art, performing her original poetry and spoken word inspired not only by her family’s background and her civil rights experience, but today’s youth that represent the future of this country and the world. ​ Ms. Preacely also served as an advocate and administrator in the public health sector for over 30 years in various programs, both for government agencies and non-profits. She’s lived in the Los Angeles metro-area since 1982, and attends the renowned and politically-progressive Holman United Methodist Church—one of few churches in Los Angeles visited by Dr. King. Holman’s pastor emeritus is also civil disobedience/non-violence training icon, Rev. James Lawson—portrayed in the award-winning film, The Butler by another activist-artist, Jesse Williams of Grey’s Anatomy. In 2015, Rev. Lawson—whom Ms. Preacely also worked with in the ‘60s—presented her with the SCLC-SC’s Rosa Parks Humanitarian Award (the SCLC is the only national organization founded by Dr. King). ​ On February 16, 2016 the accolades continued when Ms. Preacely and other extended family, attended a ceremony at Georgia’s prestigious Savannah College of Arts & Design (“SCAD”) to dedicate a permanent marker where her great-great grandparents, Ellen and William Craft boarded a train under their daring ruse.