On Sept. 21, Professor of History and Department Co-Chair Roy E. Finkenbine presented the paper “The North Star and the Barber Pole: Black Barbers and the Underground Railroad in the Old Northwest” at the Michigan Underground Railroad Heritage Gathering at the Michigan History Center in Lansing. The paper uncovered the extensive involvement of black barbers in the effort to help freedom seekers escaping enslavement in the South, especially in Ohio, Indiana and southern Michigan.