Dr. James M. Paradis, Adjunct Professor of History, will deliver the keynote address at the United States Colored Troops Graveside Salute on Monday, Nov. 19, at the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pa., near the grave of Charles H. Parker. The event is part of Gettysburg’s Dedication Day activities commemorating the 149th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.

After a wreath-laying ceremony, Steven Spielberg, director of the movie Lincoln, will give the Dedication Day Ceremony keynote address at the Gettysburg Rostrum. And then Paradis will give a keynote at the graveside ceremony honoring U.S. Colored Troops.

Paradis is the author of two books: Strike the Blow for Freedom: The Sixth Regiment of United States Colored Infantry in the Civil War (White Mane Publishing, 1998), which was nominated for the 1999 Book of the Year Award by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, and African Americans and the Gettysburg Campaign (Scarecrow Press, 2006), which Paradis revised in 2012 for the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War.

Paradis earned a B.A. from LaSalle and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Temple University. He has taught history and psychology at several universities and for the last 12 years he has taught history at Arcadia University.