History Is Illuminating

03/04/2025

https://hyperallergic.com/990094/charlottesville-nonprofit-seeks-artists-to-recast-melted-robert-e-lee-statue/

The dismantlement of the infamous Confederate monument was at the center of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in 2017.

07/19/2023

“On Jan 1, 1970, [RVA] annexed nearly 23 square miles of bordering Chesterfield County. Forty-seven thousand people became Richmond residents overnight, 45,700 of them White.”

Did Richmond violate the Voting Rights Act by adding thousands of White residents? The historic Supreme Court case foreshadowed today’s gerrymandering fights.

07/01/2022

Can we really be done with them? Reach out to Friends of East End Cemetery & Descendants Council to see if you can be helpful in the future of RVA's African American cemeteries

A 32-year-old foundation that was created to support the city Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities and that is now the owner of two historic Black cemeteries may have collapsed.

03/28/2022

Please take a moment to support the descendants of the enslaved at Montpelier.

Support the Montpelier Descendants Committee

03/09/2022

A sprinkler flying the Ukrainian flag at the site of the former Jefferson Davis Memorial on Monument Avenue. Photo by Scott Elmquist

02/22/2022

Today is the 62nd anniversary of the arrest of the Richmond 34 at Thalhimers Department Store.
On February 22, 1960, two hundred Virginia Union University students marched from their school to Thalhimers Department Store (Broad & 7th St). Energized by a recent lecture at the school given by Martin Luther King, and hearing of sit-ins occurring in Greensboro, NC they were eager to stand up for their civil rights. Upon arrival, 34 Black students walked into the “White’s Only” section of the lunch counter and requested service. All 34 students were promptly arrested and taken to jail where they were quickly released on bail thanks to Alex James, VUU’s Vice Principal putting his home up as collateral along with donations from the community. The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the store had the right to deny service, however, picketers and protestors soon pressured Thalhimers to integrate by the end of 1960.
Upon appeal to the US Supreme Court, in 1963, it was ruled that the protestors were innocent, forcing the integration of public spaces across our country. It was not until the mid-1990s that the state of VA expunged the records of the protestors. In 2010, VUU held a 50th anniversary celebration in honor of their brave alumnae. This celebration lead way to a historic marker to be placed by the State of VA on the sidewalk where Thalhimers once stood. In 2021, the Richmond Flying Squirrels launched a series of initiatives to educate people about this important part of our communities shared legacy. Much of the recent acknowledgment around the Richmond 34 is largely in part to Elizabeth Rice, one of the 34 who is now a retired educator and founder of an organization called Be Part of the Solution.
Richmond has always been at the center of our nations struggle with shared space. We see this struggle continue to play out on Monument Ave with the fencing of Marcus David Peter’s Circle. We see it in the fact that our City Government has never publicly acknowledged these heroes and City Councilors that had never heard of them until recent discussions we had. We always say the victors write history, and yet these righteous victors have practically been erased from our shared knowledge. In their honor today go get into some “Good Trouble.”

02/03/2022

https://www.tclf.org/it%E2%80%99s-not-ok-put-high-speed-rail-lines-through-shockoe-hill-african-burying-ground?fbclid=IwAR0wU7Hl6HUMaOJp2qb5C46iprBLka8yY9xsHEUGywg9j2N2AK4jaYCsdmo

Today, Richmond, VA’s Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, once the nation’s largest burial site for free and enslaved people of color, with more than 22,000 interments, is largely invisible. But if we cannot see it, does that mean it’s not there? How do we place a value on what we cannot see?...

02/01/2022

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH! Since we are all sitting around waiting to find out who our new favorite Supreme Court Justice is going to be we thought it may be a good time to look back at America’s 1st Black Woman judge.

Jane Bolin was born in Poughkeepsie, NY in 1908 to a Black lawyer father and a White British Isle immigrant mother. She studied at Vassar for undergrad with only one other Black person in her class, she graduated in the top 20 of their 1928 class. Despite being told not to apply to Yale for Law School, she joined their class of 1931. She was the only black person in her class and only one of three women. When she graduated in 1931, she was the first black woman to receive a degree from Yale. In 1936, she ran an unsuccessful campaign as a Republican for the NY State Assembly. While she lost that election, it brought her name into political circulation.

On July 22, 1939 the NYC Mayor, Fiorello La Guardia, appointed her as a Judge to the Domestic Relations Court at the New York World’s Fair. Bolin was only 31 years old. She stayed on the court for 40 years until she was required to retire at 70. During this time, she worked as an activist for children’s civil rights and education, sitting on the boards of the NAACP, the National Urban League, & Child Welfare League. She specifically focused on integrating child services such as probation officers, and childcare. She also worked to combat racial discrimination from religious groups. After her retirement, she volunteered as a reading instructor for NYC Public Schools and served on the NY State Board of Regents. She passed away in 2007 at the age of 98 in Queens, NY. May she Rest In Power.

“I’d rather see if I can help a child than settle an argument between adults over money.”- Jane Bolin

01/20/2022

Should high speed rail lines linking Richmond, VA, and Washington, D.C. go through Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, once one of the nation’s largest burial sites for free and enslaved people of color? That threat landed the site in The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s (TCLF) Landslide 2021: R...

12/22/2021

Over 130 years after being buried in the pedestal, the Robert E. Lee Monument time capsule is being opened today.