As our e-Newsletters roll out this series in the coming months, please check back in to see what new materials we’ve added. You can click hotlinks to access sites, or download full articles. Please Contact Us with your Questions, or suggestions for additions, or to add join the email list for latest releases, additions, and notice of relevant events.
Note: Resources with an * have been produced in conjunction with RHS Programs or Publications.
Series Overview
*Eric Wilson, Local Black Histories: Virtual Access, Lasting Archive
Free Blacks & Slavery in Rockbridge, Virginia
*David Coffey, Patrick Henry, Free Man of Color: Caretaker of Thomas Jefferson’s Natural Bridge
*Larry Spurgeon, The Henry Brothers, Part 1: From Slavery, to Free Men, and the Legacies of Resilience Part 1 + Part 2
Turk McCleskey, The Road to Black Ned’s Forge: A Story of Race, Sex, and Trade on the Colonial American Frontier (+ video lecture)
Ted DeLaney, John Chavis: Soldier, Minister, Educator & America’s First African American College Student, at Washington College: (+ 3 min audio profile)
Melvin Patrick Ely, Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Freedom from 1790 to the Civil War (+ radio interview)
*Fitzhugh Brundage, Attitudes towards Slavery in Antebellum Rockbridge County
Neely Young, Ripe for Emancipation: Rockbridge and Anti-Slavery from Revolution to Civil War
*Charles Dew, Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge
Larry Spurgeon, Stonewall Jackson’s Slaves
*Larry Spurgeon, James Alexander aka ‘Jim Lewis’
*Eric Wilson, The Faces of Freedom: Archer Alexander, Emancipation Memorials, and How We Look at the Past (Video + Slides)
Journeys to Juneteenth
Juneteenth and Freedom: Reading Lists for all Ages
*Eric Wilson, Celebrating Juneteenth in Lexington, 2021
*Eric Wilson, Journeys to Juneteenth
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. & PBS, What is Juneteenth?
New York Times Interactive, How We Juneteenth
Juneteenth Art Show 2020: Project Horizon and Nelson Gallery
Emancipation and Reconstruction
*Theodore C. DeLaney, Aspects of Black Religious and Educational Development in Lexington, 1840-1928
Doug Harwood, The Strange Saga of Lexington’s Colored School
Lynching in Virginia Database, JMU: Comparative Sources on Jesse Edwards in Rockbridge, 1869
*Larry Spurgeon and Eric Wilson, Black Men Take the Ballot: The Landmark 1867 Vote in Rockbridge
*Larry Spurgeon and Eric Wilson, The Votes of 1867 … Who Counted Here?
*Larry Spurgeon and Eric Wilson, ‘Bulldozing,’ Blowback, & Disenfranchisement Reconstruction and Redemption in Rockbridge, 1867-1902
*Larry Spurgeon and Eric Wilson, School Ties and Social Networks: The Rise of ‘The New Negro’ in ‘The Age of Jim Crow’
*Larry Spurgeon and Eric Wilson, “Fence Corners of Cultivated Fields”: Lexington’s Two Black Cemeteries
1867 Register of 952 ‘Qualified Colored Electors’ from Rockbridge (Searchable Transcript)
*David Coffey, Reconstruction and Redemption in Lexington
John M. McClure, Freedmen’s Bureau School in Lexington versus ‘General Lee’s Boys‘
Joseph Reidy, Illusions of Emancipation: The Pursuit of Freedom and Equality in the Twilight of Slavery
Dorris Keeven-Franke, The Life and Legacies of Archer Alexander
Sascha Goluboff: Sentimental Attachments: Race Relations in Brownsburg Before and After the Civil War – Brownsburg Museum Exhibit
Nicole Myers Turner, Soul Liberty: The Evolution of Black Religious Politics in Postemancipation Virginia (+ paired open access, interactive e-Book)
The 20th Century: Jim Crow to Desegregation
*Eric Wilson, The Cultures of Teaching: Community Commitments, Local Teachers, and the 20th Century Arc of American Education
Edward Ayers, The Roots of Segregation in Virginia (video)
*Eric Wilson, Black Histories at Natural Bridge: Re-Visiting Virginia’s Frontier Icon (video + slideshow)
*Eric Wilson, Looking for Lylburn Downing
Michael Blankenship, Rev. Lylburn L. Downing, a Biography (1862-1937)
*Eric Wilson, Eliza Bannister Walker: Community Activist, Cultural Leader (video + slideshow)
*Eric Wilson, Re-Visiting Rockbridge, 1939: A New Year’s Journey with RHS, and “The Negro Motorist Green Book”
*Eric Wilson, Lexington’s Two Schools for Black Students (1865-1965): The Impact of Educators of Color (Video + Slides)
*Eric Wilson, The Impact of Educators of Color, Part II: Consolidation and Curriculum, 1965-2020 (Video + Slides)
*School Spirit, School History, Black History Month 2023: The Legacies of Lylburn Downing School
*Theodore C. DeLaney, Telling Our Stories: School Desegregation in Four Western Virginia Counties
Virginia Humanities, Separate But Unequal: Fighting Virginia School Segregation: 4 Testimonies (podcast series, “With Good Reason”)
*Eric Wilson, The Arts and Histories of Diamond & Green Hill (slideshow)
Beverly Tucker, The House on Fuller Street: Oral Histories from Lexington’s African-American Neighborhoods
Jonathan Schwab, UVA Football’s First Black Scholarship Player, 1970: Rockbridge High School’s Stanley Land Looks Back, 50 Years Later