Vanishing act

The shadows are growing long in Longtown, Ohio. Connor Keiser cracks open the blinds inside the Bethel Long Wesleyan Church, sending weak shafts of light into the sanctuary. He then settles into a pew, opens a photo album and brings the historic black settlement to life.

The 22-year-old Wright State University student is a direct descendant of James Clemens, a freed slave from Virginia who planted the seeds of Longtown nearly two centuries ago in a rural patch of western Ohio. One of the state’s first black settlements, Longtown became a pioneer in racial integration and a haven for