With Good Reason

Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello, and Mt. Vernon are popular destinations for American history tourism.  However, smaller sites are being developed with the help of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities that focus on the contributions of African Americans to early U.S. history.  Larissa Smith Fergeson (Longwood University) discusses the Thyne Institute in Mecklenburg County, Carver-Price High [...]

Antonio Garcia (Virginia Commonwealth University) says that the personal and professional lives of musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane cannot be divorced from the struggle for racial equality—they contributed in significant ways to interracial understanding and social progress.  Also featured: The composers of the Civil Rights anthem “Lift Every Voice and [...]

The election of Abraham Lincoln as President touched off a secession crisis in the South.  In his new book, Showdown in Virginia, Bill Freehling (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities) focuses on turning points in Virginia’s months-long, bitter battle over whether to secede from the Union.   Also: Historians estimate that of the nearly 5,000 pirates who [...]

Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello, and Mt. Vernon are popular destinations for American history tourism.  However, smaller sites are being developed with the help of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities that focus on the contributions of African Americans to early U.S. history.  Larissa Smith Fergeson (Longwood University) discusses the Thyne Institute in Mecklenburg County, Carver-Price High [...]

Passed at the height of the eugenics movement, the Racial Integrity Act proclaimed the existence of only two racial categories in Virginia—”colored” and white.  The law stripped Native Americans, and members of other groups with dark skin, of their land, voting rights, and legal identity.  David Smith (Longwood University) and anthropologist Helen Rountree (Old Dominion [...]

James Farmer was the leader of the 1961 Freedom Rides that desegregated transportation in the South. His skilled oratory was shaped in part as a member of the legendary 1935 debate team portrayed in Denzel Washington’s 2007 feature film, The Great Debaters. Timothy O’Donnell (University of Mary Washington) is leading an effort to help historically [...]

Poet Lucille Clifton is widely acclaimed for her powerful explorations of race, womanhood, and spirituality. This June she was honored by the Furious Flower Poetry Center (James Madison University), which brought together more than 40 teachers and scholars to examine the National Book Award-winner’s lifetime of contributions to American poetry.  Also: Hilary Holladay (Virginia Foundation [...]

In 1951, young Barbara Johns led a student walkout to protest conditions at the segregated Moton High School in Farmville, VA.  Her actions led to a lawsuit, one of a number that eventually helped strike down the doctrine of “separate but equal.”  Lacy Ward, Jr.  (Longwood University) is Director of the Robert Russa Moton Museum. [...]

When Virginia’s fight against integration of the public schools failed, white families moved out of cities in droves and left behind social and physical scars that are still felt today.  Renee Hill (Virginia State University) and John Moeser (University of Richmond) discuss the history of “white flight” and its effect today on Richmond, Virginia, the [...]

Harper Lee’s 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, presents the Jim Crow south through the eyes of a young girl.  Mary Badham, the actress who portrayed “Scout” in the film, shares memories of her fond relationship with actor Gregory Peck.  Gary Edgerton (Old Dominion University) and Ted McKosky (Radford University) explain why the film is [...]