August 2021 Historic Resources Committee Packet August 13, 2021, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM This packet contains various materials to guide meeting discussions. The materials are listed below, linked and with reference to their page in the PDF file. 1. July 9, 2021 HRC Meeting Notes Page 02 of PDF 2. Rubric for Engaging Descendant Communities Page 04 of PDF 3. Examples of Local Walking Tour Maps Page 29 of PDF 4. Walking Tour Map Memo Page 33 of PDF 5. Diagrams and Photos for Vinegar Hill Park Discussion Page 34 of PDF 6. Adopted HRC Operating Procedures Page 40 of PDF 7. Proposed amendments to HRC Operating Procedures Page 44 of PDF 8. Draft Resolution Thanking Ellen Wagner for Service on Committee Page 46 of PDF MEETING NOTES Charlottesville Historic Resources Committee Friday, July 9, 2021; 11:00 a.m. – 1 p.m. Remote meeting via Zoom ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….... HRC Members present HRC Members not present Staff present Phil Varner, Chair Heather Hill Jeff Werner Sally Duncan, Vice-chair William Clay III Robert Watkins Kay Slaughter Dede Smith Margaret O’Bryant Genevieve Keller Jalane Schmidt Jessica Livingston Rachel Lloyd 1. Call to order: Chair Phil Varner calls the meeting to order. Varner opens the floor up to public comment but the HRC receives no public comment. Committee welcomes new member, Jessica Livingston. 2. Approval of the agenda: Committee discusses moving closing business to before the walking tour work session on agenda, as well as initiating a resolution of thanks to former HRC member Ellen Wagner for years of service on the committee. Dede Smith moves to adopt the amended agenda. Margaret O’Bryant seconds motion. Motion passes unanimously. 3. Approval of meeting notes: Smith moves to approve June 11, 2021 HRC meeting notes. Kay Slaughter seconds motion. Motion passes unanimously, with Sally Duncan abstaining. 4. Planning Engagement for Slave Auction Block site: Before public engagement meetings in the fall, HRC should map out more concrete process. Create an online form to generate mailing list and collect feedback. Committee and staff discuss request for proposal (RFP) for redesign of downtown parks, now on hold. Staff will investigate status of RFP, and committee considers writing a letter to Council to encourage reinitiating parks redesign process and incorporating slave auction block memorialization into RFP. Committee members identify the Memorial for Enslaved Laborers at UVA as a model for engagement and collaboration between designers and descendants. HRC July 9, 2021 Meeting Notes Members propose engaging Mabel Wilson, Columbia University architecture professor and part of the UVA memorial design team, for a work session. Genevieve Keller moves that the committee ask staff to investigate hiring Mabel Wilson on a sole-source contract for a work session with members of the HRC and other stakeholders to explore options holistically for the downtown area that might be the subject of an RFP for redesign, and specifically to address the issue of the auctions of enslaved people and other transfers in the courthouse area. Phase 1 of this contract should be a Zoom work session in which participants discuss future process and lessons learned from the UVA memorial. Slaughter seconds motion. Motion passes unanimously. 5. Burley High School National Register Plaque Discussion: Staff gives background on the Burley High School National Register nomination. Smith moves to appropriate requested funds for a National Register bronze plaque. Slaughter seconds motion. Keller proposes that the committee ask Albemarle County to contribute to the plaque costs, given Burley’s history as both a City and County school. Vote taken on previously seconded motion. Motion passes unanimously. Keller moves that the HRC send a friendly letter to the appropriate body in Albemarle County, informing them that the committee has taken this action and invites them to share in the cost if they desire. The motion receives no seconds. 6. Walking Tour Map Work Session: Walking tour subcommittee updates HRC on talks with designer for map. Subcommittee will get estimates for design and printing maps to determine next steps. 7. Staff Updates: Staff updates HRC on proposed courthouse design (reviewed at July 2021 Board of Architectural Review meeting), status of CODE Building construction and need for Vinegar Hill Park signage, and potential use of bus stops for hanging interpretive posters. 8. Coordinate Agenda for August HRC Meeting: Keller moves that the HRC ask staff to draft resolution thanking Ellen Wagner for years of service on the HRC. Rachel Lloyd seconds motion. Motion passes unanimously. HRC July 9, 2021 Meeting Notes ENGAGING DESCENDANT COMMUNITIES IN T HE IN T E RPRE TAT ION OF SL AV E RY AT M USE U M S A N D HIS TORIC S I T E S A R UBRIC OF BE S T P R A C T ICE S E S TA BL ISHE D B Y T HE N AT ION A L S UMMI T ON T E A CHING SL AV E R Y V 1.0—10.2 5.18 National Trust for Historic Preservation African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund https://savingplaces.org/african-american-cultural-heritage#. Please direct questions or feedback on the rubric to ccotz@montpelier.org IN T ROD U C T ION In partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, James Madison’s Montpelier convened the inaugural National Summit on Teaching Slavery in February 2018. Kat Imhoff, President and CEO of The Montpelier Foundation, stated that the summit represented “an important step towards creating a more honest and equitable version of history for future generations . . . . We are convening as an interdisciplinary workshop of peers with the concrete and important goal of creating a rubric for public historians to work with descendants.” In that spirit, educators, curators, scholars, activists, museum and historic site practitioners, and descendants convened to deliberate on the best ideas and practices for teaching slavery in a more engaging and inclusive manner that incorporates the stories and experiences of enslaved people through the voices of their descendants. This rubric is an assessment and development tool that measures and builds an organization’s capability and commitment to teach slavery. In its most fundamental form, a “descendant community” is a group of people whose ancestors were enslaved at a particular site, but it can transcend that limited definition. A descendant community can include those whose ancestors were enslaved not only at a particular site, but also throughout the surrounding region, reflecting the fact that family ties often crossed plantation boundaries. A descendant community can also welcome those who feel connected to the work the institution is doing, whether or not they know of a genealogical connection. Engaging descendants of enslaved communities forms a critical component of the rubric. Empowering descendant voices challenges the public to consider their points of view, which until very recently have been marginalized from the dominant historical narratives offered in classrooms, textbooks, museums, and historic sites. Beyond simply gaining historical information, institutions working respectfully with descendants can forge connections critical to their work. We hope that this rubric is viewed and utilized as a foundation upon which to construct richer, more diverse narratives that bring people to better understand the lived experience of slavery and its legacy, as well as to highlight examples of perseverance that carry descendants’ legacies into the future. We hope it will continue to be revised as it is used and evaluated. Recent events reaffirmed the sense of urgency and gravity of producing this rubric. While racist violence is a hallmark of American history, the tragedy that resulted from a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville (thirty miles from Montpelier) in August 2017 drew attention to the gaps in ethical education about the history and ongoing legacies of American chattel slavery, and the need for shared understanding of it. Numerous communities in the nation are wrestling with ways to address the presence of over 700 Confederate monuments, 551 of which were installed decades after the end of the Civil War as statements of white supremacy. A recent study by the Southern Poverty Law Center described the inadequate state of education in elementary and high schools regarding the teaching of American chattel slavery. (The authors of that study participated in the National Summit on Teaching Slavery). Yet, at the same time, several ongoing initiatives at historic sites like Montpelier, Monticello, Somerset Place, Stagville, and history museums like the Smithsonian 1 National Museum of African American History and Culture suggest better ways to engage the public in the painful topic of slavery and its lingering injustices while also building community. Motivated by a belief in the need for action, and confident that affirming truthful history can influence a larger public towards positive reconciliation, the Summit participants present this rubric to assist teachers, public historians, interpretation professionals, and descendant communities in addressing American history in a spirit of restorative justice and shared understanding. The rubric provides a methodology for openly addressing the central role slavery played in the development of the United States, as well as its lasting impact on American society today, in ways that highlight our shared humanity. Drawing from lessons learned at museums and historic sites, in classrooms, and relying on current scholarship, the rubric is comprised of three pillars upon which to build descendant engagement: historical research, relationship building, and interpretation. We see the rubric’s emphasis on these three pillars as equally essential for museums and historic sites if they wish to engage effectively and ethically in much-needed truth-telling about slavery’s role in the shaping of the United States, the legacy it continues to have on race relations in America, and the lingering institutional disparities that prevent all Americans from realizing the ideals expressed in our founding documents. Failing to tell the truth about race and slavery results in widely-held fears of engaging with people who look, speak, act, or think differently than oneself. It is lived out in anger and despair in feeling marginalized, erased, and invisible due to demographics or identity. It is experienced in the harmful effects of racism on the public’s physical, mental, and spiritual health. And it is experienced tragically, violently, and fatally in Ferguson, Charlottesville, Charleston, and places in between. The rubric contains definitions of key terms and concrete steps to affirm authentic history, make connections, and strive for dialogue in ways that encourage responsible, rigorous, and relevant encounters with the history of slavery, including difficult themes and traumatic legacies. The three pillars provide a foundation for authentic, effective, and sustainable engagement with audiences in a much-needed conversation that reveals the truths about slavery and its legacy. This rubric will assist institutions as they engage not just the public, but also their own employees, leadership, boards, and donors, who may have never heard these truths, and find them threatening to the ideals upon which they believe this country was founded, and more personally, threatening to their perceptions of themselves. Embarking on this work has inherent risks and discomforts, but by using the rubric, institutions can better identify and manage risks. This rubric can help them avoid reactionary practices, and prevent them from knowingly or unintentionally contributing to an interpretation of history that provides inauthentic accounts and meaning-making that serves to alienate and traumatize visitors of color. As teachers of history, we strive to ensure a more inclusive narrative. This is a first step to that end. 2 R UBRIC & E X P L A N AT ION The rubric evaluates the success of the institution in meeting the criteria through a ranking of 0-4 (0 being unsatisfactory and 4 being exemplary). In devising the rubric, Summit participants wanted to bring an organization through a staged analysis of its ability to engage with the descendant community. The rubric assumes that participants are already engaged with a descendant community and want to improve the relationships. As such, institutions engaging this rubric start at their current level and build from there. The performance levels are listed from exemplary to unsatisfactory. The ultimate goal is a full partnership between the institution and the descendant community. By working backwards, we seek to lead the participants through a series of stages attainable by all parties (descendants, staff, leadership, and board) over time. It is essential that the rubric have entry points suited to a range of institutions with varying experiences and capacities. Museums and historic sites should use this rubric to assess their current state of performance and define aspirational goals as they relate to organizational research. This can be difficult, as it requires a fair amount of introspection and a willingness to confront hard truths known and unknown about the organization. However, there is no predetermined starting point. What is important is to strive toward more equitable practice. Of particular note is that as historic sites and museums progress along the rubric, descendants are increasingly inside the organization instead of outside. It is helpful to think of this work as true collaboration that will result in the institutional perspective of the museum being de-centered in favor of a descendant perspective. Descendants of enslaved people have not only been largely excluded from interpretation in museums, but when they are included, they are compartmentalized, tokenized, and used only when convenient. What does true collaborative practice look like? It may mean hiring descendants as researchers. It may mean asking first: “Do you want these stories told? What is important to you?” Open lines of communication are necessary to establish trust and collaboration. Without it, institutional perspective will dominate, and the opportunity for rightful inclusion of the descendant community is lost. In all projects and in all departments, institutions must be humble and self- aware about their histories, their legacies, and their reputations. Working with descendant communities is about building trust and restoring justice. Working alongside descendants is critical to achieve innovative interpretation and field- advancing research. Remember: descendants can be your greatest resource - use this as a tremendous opportunity to learn. 3 I. M ULT I-DIS CIPL IN A RY RE SE A RCH The study of slavery is fundamental to any understanding of American history. To effectively understand and present a comprehensive understanding of slavery in America, museums must engage as many avenues of inquiry as possible, and do so collaboratively with the descendant community. This means not only engaging with historical documents, but also including archaeological excavations, oral history, architectural history, and other forms of material culture analysis. This multi-disciplinary and multi-vocal research approach forms the basis of historical interpretation. Libraries, archives, museums, historic sites, and other repositories maintain abundant source materials in all these disciplines relating to the institution of slavery and the lived experiences of African and African American people in colonial America and the United States between 1619 and 1865. A perceived lack of primary documentary sources is sometimes used as a justification for minimal slavery interpretation at museums and historic sites, with the argument that “we simply don’t know enough.” But even in the absence of documents written by or about enslaved people at a particular site, a creative and expansive approach to primary source analysis can ensure that interpreters incorporate stories of the enslaved into the interpretive narrative. Although sources have to be used and interpreted with care, this information is not “hidden.” While significant information about the lives of enslaved people is available to researchers in libraries and archives, these materials can remain difficult for members of the public to access. The sources have a potential to create impactful and thought-provoking interpretation, yet institutions have allowed them to remain buried beneath the ground of the past, choosing to provide the public instead with partial truths. This is often the result of decisions made by institutions trying to protect the image of enslavers, or choosing to focus on elite culture and dominant narratives, rather than relating narratives that are more inclusive. In addition to documentary research, other forms of research can deeply inform the interpretation of slavery, especially material culture studies such as archaeology and art and architectural history. These disciplines can provide important detail that historical documents rarely reveal, ranging from cultural practices, consumer behavior, relationships of power, landscape change and orientation, and diet, that aid in understanding the types of objects and possessions enslaved laborers used. Material culture disciplines also provide data for the lives of the people on a specific site, providing tangible, physical evidence of the presence of enslaved laborers through their possessions and homes, and the conditions under which they lived and labored. Additionally, these disciplines provide active opportunities for descendant communities to engage in the process of discovery, analysis, and interpretation. Furthermore, although those who were formerly enslaved are now ancestors long gone, their descendants still have much to contribute to the research process in the present day. The rubric promotes a changed practice in cultural institutions, enabling public historians to work alongside descendants to research the past and tell compelling stories about enslaved people, 4 incorporating essential family oral histories, long dismissed as unreliable sources by many academic historians. The accounts of what occurred, as recorded in letters, account books, plantation records, local newspapers, and other public records, all collectively create a body of information of historical significance. This data must be supplemented by the oral histories and other materials, such as genealogical records and family heirlooms that the descendant communities possess, to render whole a valuable and shared integral component of American history. The Research rubric evaluates the ability of museums, historic sites and other institutions researching slavery and American history, to incorporate the needs and views of the descendant community in multidisciplinary research processes. The criteria are organized into five categories: Sources and Methodology, Accountability, Multivocality, Accessibility, and Collaboration. Each of these categories is distinct, yet also interdependent. They are based on developing measurable goals that will result in the highest level of engagement possible between the institution and the descendant community. All institutions should evaluate their performance in these five key areas. Sources and Methodology: The sources and methods that the institution uses in performing research. 4) Exemplary: The institution elicits questions of interest from broadly assembled forums of descendants and holds itself accountable to pursuing those questions through research that meets its professional standards of evidence, critically evaluated in the interest of inclusion. Uses a high number and wide variety of different written sources (e.g. letters, diaries, account books, plantation records, wills and other legal documents, census data, newspapers). Narratives include specific African cultural origins of the enslaved and the available evidence of resistance to enslavement to demonstrate human motivations and experiences. Uses sources to “read between the lines” (even documents that are not on the surface “about” slavery or enslaved people often contain valuable information). Genealogy, oral history, documents, archaeology, material culture, study of buildings, community research, and outreach are placed on equal footing. In the absence of specific sources, researchers employ comparative analysis to draw conclusions based on surviving evidence from comparable sites and the secondary literature. 3) Proficient: The institution uses a good number of primary sources from multiple perspectives. Connects with descendants through oral history and research, but does not involve them throughout the research process. 2) Developing: The institution actively uses genealogy to identify its descendant community. Uses only a few primary sources, but interpretation affirms that enslaved people led multifaceted lives. Engages with material culture and/or oral histories of the enslaved. 1) Ambivalent: The institution uses only secondary sources, and does not engage with any primary sources. Interest in engaging descendants around research, but no clear plan. 5 0) Unsatisfactory: The institution uses only hearsay and unsubstantiated anecdotes, and does not ground interpretation in primary or secondary sources. Interpretation may contain falsehoods about slavery or omit the topic entirely. No attempt to acknowledge descendants or involve them in research. Multi-vocality: The institution uses multiple sources and highlights multiple voices. Lifts up the voices and perspectives of marginalized people, especially descendants of enslaved people. 4) Exemplary: The institution uses sources from multiple perspectives, and provides nuanced analysis of the impact of those perspectives. Incorporates the voices of the descendant community into the institutional voice. Recognizes diversity within the descendant community voices - local, national, international. 3) Proficient: The institution looks for fresh descendant community voices, and encourages new perspectives. Works with board and staff to build institutional platforms for shared authority. 2) Developing: The institution brings in multiple voices, but they are project-specific, with a subtle preference for institutional voice. Not much diversity within the descendant community involvement; reliance on engagement with the same few people. 1) Ambivalent: The institution has articulated that it wants multiple perspectives. 0) Unsatisfactory: The institution ignores descendant voices Collaboration: Building community with descendants by working together to achieve a common set of goals and objectives. 4) Exemplary: The institution assesses community needs before beginning research, and conducts ongoing evaluation. Descendant community is part of active research, with a partnership in interpretive planning and organizing of exhibits. 3) Proficient: Any member of the descendant community with knowledge to share knows how to contact the institution. The descendant community is involved throughout the research process, but the institution is the final decision-maker. 2) Developing: The institution is doing work for descendants, but working towards doing work with them. 1) Ambivalent: The institution is interested in engaging descendants around research, but has no active plan. 0) Unsatisfactory: The institution does not acknowledge descendants or attempt to collaborate. 6 Transparency and Accountability: The ability of the institution to be accountable to visitors and the descendant community, to own up to mistakes or omissions of the past, and to strive for transparency and truth-telling. 4) Exemplary: The institution is transparent about the origins and context of the sources used. It reveals and shares research resources, and credits the descendant community. The descendant community is well-integrated and known by staff. The institution’s work is timely and contributes positively to the field and to the descendant community. The institution acknowledges its own mistakes. The descendant community has access to research. 3) Proficient: The institution reports to the descendant community on a regular basis and has created a succession plan for staff members working with descendants. The descendant community knows the institution and is comfortable visiting. 2) Developing: Measures of accountability are defined but not followed. The institution informs stakeholders and visitors of ongoing research and is beginning to study its history. 1) Ambivalent: The institution has recognized the need for transparency and is open to it, but there are no clear steps. 0) Unsatisfactory: Lack of transparency; the institution does not acknowledge its mistakes. Accessibility: Giving access to research materials and resources to descendants and the general public, given that most primary documents and artifacts held onsite at museums, historic sites, libraries or other repositories are not circulated or made accessible to the public, unless those records have been digitized (which is expensive and rare). The institution is open and transparent in all things. 4) Exemplary: The institution raises public awareness about the body of research. Restorative practice takes place through research, skill, and job training. The public has access to research and objects, with multiple entry points and delivery formats. Information is disseminated to the descendant community and general public; there is communication of research to all levels of staff. 3) Proficient: No digitalization of materials yet, but the public has access in person. The institution invites the descendant community to access its resources through events. Genealogy workshops and public programs engage the descendant community, but don’t integrate them. 2) Developing: The institution has developed finding aids and desires to make information more accessible to the descendant community. 1) Ambivalent: Research and resources exist, but access is difficult. 0) Unsatisfactory: The institution purposefully denies access to research, especially for preservation of its reputation. 7 Conclusion All interpretation begins in research, and when discussing the history of enslavement, museum and historic site professionals do themselves and visitors a disservice by not involving descendants in research. Without their voices, research lacks depth, humanity and credibility, and institutions continue to perpetuate the exploitative practices of the past by privileging the perspectives of slave owners. Many institutions have done meaningful work with descendant communities, including Montpelier and Monticello in Virginia, Somerset Place and Stagville in North Carolina, and Whitney Plantation in Louisiana. Institutions must consider descendants not as a supplemental part of operations or programmatic offerings, but as essential knowledge-keepers, experts, and advocates. Institutions can carry great personal meaning for descendants, and when descendants collaborate in research with the institution, those meanings can dramatically enrich or re-frame the interpretation. As stewards of public memory, public historians must actively collaborate with descendant community members in preserving personal family histories. Honoring individual narratives requires prioritizing the voices, stories, and perspectives of descendants in research and interpretation. II. REL AT IONSHIP BU IL DING W I T H DE S CENDA N T COMM U NI T IE S Introduction What is the ideal relationship between descendent communities and institutions that interpret slavery? Historically, the relationship between these two groups is complicated: many institutions have avoided interpreting slavery, often from fear of estranging donors or visitors. While these fears are valid, by not interpreting the lives of the enslaved, institutions fail to tell a complete story. This failure perpetuates historical and ongoing trauma to the descendants of those enslaved there, and to anyone whose ancestors were brought to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade. When institutions shy away from creating relationships with descendants, the failure speaks volumes to the descendant community, especially as these institutions continue to profit from their ancestors’ labor and pain. Including descendants in research and interpretation is contingent upon building a positive relationship with the community. A positive relationship may already exist, but like all relationships, it must be maintained and nurtured so that it will grow. It is important to realize that the community is not a monolith—it includes a wide array of opinions, thoughts, and feelings about what can and should be done. It is also not static; as more genealogy and archival research is done, new people should be brought into the community as they are located or express interest. 8 If no relationship, or a negative relationship, exists, an institution should issue an apology or a statement. It is important to realize that not every descendant (or perhaps not any descendants) will want to work with a particular institution that suppresses their ancestors’ pain and trauma. At any institution, it is important to respect and acknowledge descendant communities and approach these interactions with sensitivity, humility, and cultural, social, and emotional awareness. Descendant communities and institutional partners begin by pre-determining a set of desired goals and outcomes that reflect the highest possible standards. Institutions must not only articulate commitment to these values and outcomes, but also follow through with strategic action. Achieving structural parity ensures that descendants are represented—and empowered—at every level of the organization, from the board to the volunteers. Institutionalizing these practices ensures continuity and longevity, while proactive evaluation supports quality control. Exemplary engagement epitomizes five key criteria: High Standards, Expressed Commitment, Structural Parity, Institutionalization, and Proactive Evaluation. High Standards: The ultimate goal of cultural institutions is to provide audiences with valuable experiential learning opportunities. For institutions that interpret slavery, it is not enough simply to discuss the humanity and contributions of the enslaved. It is imperative that these institutions also unpack and interrogate white privilege and supremacy and systemic racism. Through innovation and collaboration, descendent communities can help institutions create transformative experiences that enhance cultural competency. Truthful and authentic storytelling can convey powerful messages that are both illuminating and uncomfortable. The entire organization should serve as a safe space for such sharing and discovery. This same culture of fearless storytelling and anti-racism must also be reflected in materials, programs, outreach, and partnerships. Only then will institutions and descendants have embraced the highest standards of collaborative engagement. 4) Exemplary: As a result of significant and ongoing anti-racist training (which includes interpreting difficult history, deconstructing and interrogating white privilege, white supremacy, and systemic racism, and engaging visitors on these subjects), the staff is transparent, truthful, and authentic in all relations and interactions with the descendant community. Interpretation is conceived to emphasize the humanity of the enslaved ancestors and to evoke empathy from visitors. 3) Proficient: All staff have received anti-racist training, interpretive staff receives ongoing training. 2) Developing: Front-line staff have been trained once. 1) Ambivalent: Select staff have been trained once. 0) Unsatisfactory: No staff have been trained. 9 Expressed Commitment: One important way institutions can powerfully and publicly express commitment to descendant communities is by articulating it in their governing and planning documents: mission statements, by-laws, and strategic plans. The institution can also create a written memorandum of understanding with descendants that explicitly outlines commitments and responsibilities. 4) Exemplary: The institution explicitly expresses values of inclusion and anti-racism. The mission statement and by-laws reflect the presence, values, and interests of descendants. The strategic plan prioritizes engagement, equity, inclusion, and reparative financial investments. An interpretive plan actively seeks and embraces oral histories, and expressly values descendent relationships. The institution creates a written m.o.u with descendants that clearly outlines commitments and responsibilities, such as shared decision- making authority, asset co-management, and the adequate allocation of resources. 3) Proficient: There has been limited action toward achieving the exemplary model, with an informal plan of action, but no institutional self-evaluation. 2) Developing: The institution and descendant community have begun communication regarding commitment, but without a defined plan of action towards an m.o.u. 1) Ambivalent: Internal discussion about creating an m.o.u. has begun. 0) Unsatisfactory: No effort has been undertaken toward these goals. Structural Parity: Exemplary structural parity occurs when members of the descendant community are represented and empowered at every level of the institution – board, senior leadership, supervisors, junior staff, and volunteers. Representation goes beyond tokenism; these positions are invested with power and authority. Additionally, a descendant committee serves as a standing board committee; and targeted internships, mentorship, outreach, and partnerships (HBCUs, African American Studies programs, professional societies, etc.) exist to ensure a continuous, descendant talent/academic pipeline. The history of the enslaved community and the voices of their descendants are fully integrated into all of the institution’s materials and programs, including research, preservation, archaeology, and interpretation. 4) Exemplary: Significant representation at each level has been achieved. Anti-racism training is provided for staff, board, and leadership. The institution reflects and considers all types of diversity (e.g. social, economic, geographic, knowledge, skills, etc.), and includes advisory voices. 3) Proficient: Board has structural parity, as described above, at the decision making level; there is parity in leadership staff. 2) Developing: Parity at junior staff level. 1) Ambivalent: Parity at advisory level only. 0) Unsatisfactory: Homogeneity in board, senior leadership, supervisors, junior staff, and volunteers. 10 Institutionalization: Once a slavery-interpreting organization has established practices that are culturally competent and inclusive of the descendant community, making these practices systematic helps ensure their continuity and longevity. This requires ongoing dialogue and regular training and professional development for the entire board, staff, and volunteers. Partnerships with similarly-focused organizations can provide both accountability and inspiration. Institutionalization also means cultivating and sustaining relationships with patrons and donors who share the organization’s mission and values, and are willing to invest in its advancement. 4) Exemplary: The institution has established practices that are culturally competent and inclusive of the descendant community. Human Resources staff ensures ongoing diversity training of all staff through annual review. Board members and donors reflect the values of the institution. All practices are inclusive, with multiple opportunities for evaluation. Works closely with collegial organizations to share insight, inspiration, and resources. 3) Proficient: There is continuing exchange with collegial organizations and implementation of insights gained from this exchange. 2) Developing: Such a process is in development, beginning with reaching out to colleagues at similar institutions. 1) Ambivalent: There is sporadic informal engagement to exchange ideas, but it is inconsistent from one level to another throughout the institution. 0) Unsatisfactory: No attempt at institutionalizing these goals Proactive Evaluation: Exemplary descendent engagement requires ongoing evaluation that is both proactive and comprehensive. The goal of evaluation is to both continuously improve the ways in which descendent communities are engaged, and also to mitigate any concerns or problems that may arise. Evaluation should follow the PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) Cycle model (see Appendix I). Through strategic goal setting, prompt follow up, reflection and, when necessary, change, institutions can nurture relationships that are constructive and meaningful for all involved. 4) Exemplary: There is ongoing, comprehensive, and proactive evaluation of the ways in which descendent communities are being engaged - on the board, staff, and community levels - including follow up. 3) Proficient: The PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) Cycle model begins, with regular attention to and evaluations of these goals. 2) Developing: Annual evaluation of descendant engagement practices. 1) Ambivalent: Less than annual evaluation of these practices. 0) Unsatisfactory: No evaluation. 11 Conclusion Building an institutional and personal relationship with descendant communities takes time, and should be done with attentiveness, care, and sensitivity. It is an institution-wide commitment and job, and cannot only depend on one person or one department. Ensuring structural parity is crucial, as is making sure the descendant community is familiar with multiple people and departments of the institution. Relationships are the foundation on which this work is done, and putting time, effort, and work into them is one of the most important steps an institution can take. III. IN T ERP RE TAT ION In January 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance program released its report “Teaching Hard History: American Slavery.” The report concludes: “The nation needs an intervention in the ways that we teach and learn about the history of American slavery.” (Kate Shuster 2018: 40; https:// www.splcenter.org/20180131/teaching-hard-history) While this assessment targets the teaching of slavery in America’s schools, it is equally applicable to museums, historic sites, and other cultural institutions. It is an understatement to say that museums and historic sites have an inadequate record of interpreting slavery and its legacies. Reasons range from outright racism to the more nuanced fact that we, as a nation, do not know how to talk about slavery and its legacies. It was not until the end of the twentieth century that many cultural institutions—even major sites— began acknowledging slavery, while still fewer interpreted the subject. In the last decades of the twentieth century, most interpretation of slavery took the “segregationist” approach. Institutions often interpreted the histories of slavery and the enslaved as narratives outside the main interpretive story and focused on single or two-dimensional representations of enslaved men, women, and children, through their labor roles or a simple listing of documented names. Institutions failed to put the narrative of slavery into its proper place at the center of American history, and often failed to provide representations of enslaved people as multi-dimensional, complex individuals with agency, and with important identities beyond their labor. Interpretation emerged as an important form of education at museums and historic sites after Freeman Tilden’s groundbreaking book Interpreting our Heritage, commissioned by the National Park Service and published in 1957, spelled out six principles of interpretation (See Appendix II). Today the National Association for Interpretation defines interpretation as “a mission-based communication process that forges emotional and intellectual connections between the interests of the audience and meanings inherent in the resource.” While both definitions still form a foundation for current interpretation practice, neither addresses the ethical responsibilities of institutions engaging in interpretation. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, museums and historic sites have sought to be more inclusive of the history of slavery. Even though institutions may desire to integrate their historic narratives and more accurately portray the 12 central theme of slavery in U.S. history, many do not know how. For example, institutions often struggle with interpreting the origins of race-based slavery in the United States, including the founders’ use of the social construct of race to rationalize slavery, or the use of the pseudoscience of eugenics in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries to justify racism, discrimination, and segregation. Some institutions are reluctant to address this history, while others are uncertain how to share it in ways that are ethical, meaningful and effective, with empathy for the enslaved, their descendants, and the learner. Key to the integration of this history is engagement with descendants of enslaved people. Institutions should work to engage descendant communities in the interpretation process. Descendants should be central to the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of all forms of interpretation, from programs to exhibitions. Engagement should be early, often, and ongoing. For many institutions, this is a dramatic change from simply surveying a community at the beginning or asking for feedback at the end. Community engagement for some institutions will be a difficult challenge. Building trust takes time. Summit participants identified six criteria to measure progress in better interpreting slavery: Multi-dimensional Representations of People; Descendant Community Engagement and Collaboration; Institutional Commitment; Tools/Interpretive Techniques; Inclusive and Equitable Narratives; Audience. Multi-Dimensional Representations of People: At many institutions, interpretation mentions enslaved people only briefly, while providing extensive and detailed accounts of the lives of the white enslaver class. Institutions should ensure that interpretation of the lives of enslaved people provides the nuance, detail, and humanity afforded other historical figures. There should be provisions for making enslaved people visible—depending on the institution’s venue. For example, for a white family’s plantation or house, the living and work spaces of the enslaved should be visible and tangible as well. If visitors cannot see evidence of slavery, they will not ask questions about it, or pay attention to the message. 4) Exemplary: The institution develops a biography for each known enslaved person, tracing the arc of that person’s life with as much detail as possible (recognizing that extensive details are not always available). The institution emphasizes the individual’s humanity, not just his or her legal status as a slave. The institution affords each individual a complex identity (looking beyond their labor) and provides an intersectional analysis of their experience (discussing multiple aspects of their identity at the same time, including family members and other relationships). The institution acknowledges enslaved people’s agency: how they shaped their own lives within the institution of slavery. The institution uses inclusive language that highlights the humanity of enslaved people and encourages visitors to empathize with them. 3) Proficient: The institution presents the life stories of several individuals and emphasizes their agency. There is reference to the humanity and complex identity of those in bondage. 13 2) Developing: The institution identifies individuals, but provides minimal background information. Alternatively, the institution provides one or more life stories, but the portrayals are one-dimensional and/or without discussion of agency (e.g. an enslaved manservant is discussed only in terms of his relationship with the master). 1) Ambivalent: The institution does not identify individual enslaved people. The enslaved community is referenced only in abstract terms (e.g. “the slaves,” “them”), or only in terms of their relationship to white individuals. 0) Unsatisfactory: The institution refers to enslaved people as “servants” or does not mention them at all. Descendant Community Engagement and Collaboration: As an institution develops and implements interpretation, it should involve as many stakeholders as possible in the process. Engaging members of the descendant community as equal partners is especially vital and highly recommended. 4) Exemplary: Multiple stakeholders have a voice in the institution’s development and implementation of slavery interpretation. The institution’s engagement with descendant stakeholders is early, frequent, and sustained. The institution shares authority with the descendant community and privileges their perspective when making decisions about slavery interpretation. 3) Proficient: The institution engages and collaborates with different stakeholders consistently. The institution identifies the members of the descendant community as key stakeholders. Members are involved in some decision making. 2) Developing: The institution has identified key descendant stakeholders and engages/collaborates with them occasionally. Engagement may not be frequent or sustained. 1) Ambivalent: The institution’s engagement with descendant stakeholders is infrequent and primarily didactic, not collaborative. The institution identifies the descendant community but does not include members in decision making. 0) Unsatisfactory: The institution does not engage or collaborate with descendant stakeholders. Interpretation reflects only the institutional voice, not that of the descendant community or any other group. Institutional Commitment: A paradigm shift in slavery interpretation can only occur if the institution is committed to change at all levels and provides the necessary support to implement that change. 4) Exemplary: A commitment to slavery interpretation is part of the institution’s strategic plan and mission statement. That vision and mission are communicated to staff, stakeholders, and visitors (this may involve a name change, such as the choice made by the Royall House & Slave Quarters in Medford, Massachusetts). Board and staff members (at all levels, from senior leadership to front-line employees) are involved in the process and receive appropriate training, professional development, or continuing education. The institution consistently dedicates the necessary budgetary resources and 14 staff time to implement more inclusive interpretation. The institution documents, evaluates, and measures its efforts to be more inclusive. The institution is committed to diversity and inclusion within the board and staff. 3) Proficient: Slavery interpretation is part of the institution’s strategic plan, but is not included as a core part of its mission. The institutional vision is sometimes communicated to visitors. Most board and staff are involved and committed to change. Some budgetary and human resources are dedicated to the effort. The institution documents, evaluates, and measures its efforts to be more inclusive. 2) Developing: The institution has made progress towards greater institutional commitment, with some board and staff members committed to change. Interpretive efforts may be under-resourced (e.g. assigned to only one staff member) or non-central to the organization’s mission. 1) Ambivalent: The institution’s commitment to slavery interpretation is limited or sporadic (e.g. only offering slavery-related programming during Black History Month). Allocates limited resources towards such efforts. 0) Unsatisfactory: The institution’s commitment to inclusive interpretation is perfunctory or nonexistent. The institution allocates no resources for such interpretation. Efforts to improve are met with overt dismissal or hostility. Tools/Interpretive Techniques: Interpretation can take many forms, such as exhibitions, tours, interactive and multimedia displays, websites, programming, and special events. Each type has its appropriate place, and when thoroughly employed, can work together to further the institution’s goal of inclusive interpretation. 4) Exemplary: The institution provides a rich variety of interpretive techniques to convey the history of slavery and race to visitors. The techniques are aligned with the institution’s mission. Such interpretation is highly visible. The institution adheres to best practices for the development and implementation of each type of interpretation. Each tool is appropriate for the content and the audience, addressing different ages and learning preferences. Interpretation is offered in multiple languages and in accessible formats. The institution evaluates its interpretive tools regularly and uses the results to improve. 3) Proficient: The institution provides a good variety of interpretive tools. The interpretation is consistently aligned with the institution’s mission. The institution conducts some evaluation of its interpretive techniques. 2) Developing: The institution provides some variety of interpretive tools, or a small number of tools that are employed extremely effectively. 1) Ambivalent: The institution provides little variety of interpretive tools. Interpretation is not consistently aligned with the institution’s values or mission. Interpretation has low visibility. 0) Unsatisfactory: The institution uses a single type of interpretation that does not meet any other criteria discussed by this rubric. 15 Inclusive and Equitable Narratives: Historian James Oliver Horton wrote, “Slavery was not a sideshow in American history. It was the main event.” Many institutions interpret slavery as a separate and secondary narrative—divorced both physically and metaphorically from the primary story about elite white residents. This is misleading and inaccurate, suggesting that it is possible to tell a truthful story that does not include slavery. When crafting their interpretive narratives, institutions must ensure that slavery is a significant thread that runs throughout. 4) Exemplary: The institution’s primary narrative is inclusive (contains discussion of slavery/enslaved people) and equitable (the stories of enslaved people are given equal weight to those of the enslavers). The institution presents a multiplicity of perspectives within its primary narrative. The institution addresses slavery, race, and racism as complex concepts and provides local, national, and international context. The institution addresses the contemporary relevance of the history of slavery, race, and racism. 3) Proficient: The institution’s primary narrative is mostly integrated to include the stories of enslaved people. The institution includes more than one perspective in its primary narrative. The institution addresses the local, national, and international context of slavery. 2) Developing: The institution presents a substantial narrative about slavery, but on a parallel and separate track, not integrated into the primary narrative. The context of slavery is addressed only briefly. 1) Ambivalent: The institution presents some narrative about slavery, but it is not equitable with or integrated into the primary narrative. The context of slavery is not addressed. 0) Unsatisfactory: Slavery is not part of any narrative at the institution. Only a single story of elite whites is presented Audience: Interpretation does not occur in a vacuum: in order to be effective, all interpretive efforts must take into account the intended audience. Topics like slavery and race can be sensitive, for very different reasons. The institution recognizes that visitors will have a variety of reactions to the interpretation of slavery and has developed responses to the most common ones. Some visitors may feel defensive at difficult conversations about racism, privilege, and violence. Engagement with such visitors requires care to prevent them from “shutting down.” Others may feel frustrated at the way the institution presents slavery. Their perspectives can provide valuable feedback as institutions refine their interpretation in order to reach as many audience members as possible with their desired messages, leaving few unaffected. Understanding and responding to audience needs and concerns can ensure that interpretation is effective and impactful. Institutions must respect the fact that some descendants of enslaved peoples will choose not to engage with sites interpreting slavery, for reasons that may include ongoing trauma and anger, as well as general disinterest. Some descendants are not interested in being involved with or visiting a site where their ancestors were held in bondage. This does not mean the institution should 16 not attempt to engage descendants, but instead be aware of different negative or painful reactions that may arise, and be prepared to give people space, as well as to listen and respond to any critiques that may arise. 4) Exemplary: The institution consistently considers different audience perspectives and learning preferences as it develops interpretation. The institution engages in dialogue with visitors and provides ample opportunities for them to respond. The institution conducts research to identify the needs, interests, perception, and motivations of its audiences, using this information to identify problems and improve accordingly. The institution provides audiences a space for reflection and contemplation after engaging with difficult material. 3) Proficient: The institution considers its audiences as it develops interpretation. Staff members are trained in audience awareness. Visitors are given multiple opportunities to provide feedback. The institution occasionally measures and responds to its audience. 2) Developing: The institution identifies and tries to expand its target audience. Visitors are given a few opportunities to respond. The institution measures audience sporadically. 1) Ambivalent: The institution is aware of its audience demographics but allocates no resources to audience feedback or training interpreters to handle different visitor reactions to slavery interpretation. 0) Unsatisfactory: The institution is indifferent to its audiences’ potential for being inspired by richer interpretation, viewing them as merely consumers of the narrative they choose to communicate. Conclusion Descendant communities should be involved at all levels of interpretation and education. Their communities should be reflected in the institutional mission and value statements, with resources dedicated to sustaining such involvement. Descendants should also be included in aspirational conversations about future site or interpretive planning, and in active exhibition or program development. When possible, descendants should be represented on staff, or compensated as consultants for their time and efforts. Institutional narratives should be inclusive of all contributors to the historical record, and should treat various types of primary sources with equity. Those narratives should reflect agency and humanity, cultivate empathy in visitors for the people of the past, and emphasize the relevance of history today. Not all museums or historic sites are created equal. Disparities in funding and institutional commitment, the progress of previous research, staff awareness of and familiarity (or lack thereof) with existing communities or individuals, and prior institutional successes or failures in engagement, will all affect an institution’s ability to engage with descendant communities to offer public programs or exhibitions that are ethical, inclusive, and relevant. However, an institution that makes no effort at engagement fails to fulfill its public and professional responsibilities. 17 FIN A L T HOUGH T S by Michael Blakey, Ph.D. National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Anthropology, College of William and Mary; Montpelier Descendant Community The Rubric on Teaching Slavery represents a consensus of the thinking of a broad range of experienced professional site interpreters, scholars, and members of descendant communities, formalizing a methodology and evaluative criteria for true public engagement—an engagement with descendants that would allow accurate and equitable narratives of slavery and the enslaved. These solutions are the rational and ethical extension of ubiquitous conversations of the public at historic sites and museums. In the more than two decades since the term “descendant community” was drawn from language of the National Historic Preservation Act and first applied as an empowering handle for African Americans who rallied to dignify the New York African Burial Ground, a struggle for the human right to memorialize and tell their own stories has continued to grow. In some quarters “civic engagement” seeks little more than to co-opt communities into researchers’ and interpreters’ own narratives. In others, it seeks to enable an authentic dialogue about the past in a plural democracy in which descendants have a specific right to be heard and to benefit equitably from sites of their history, long denied them. This rubric is for the latter. The fruits of conjoined interpretive and descendant communities are already apparent at some sites that have taken the long-view toward forging real, empathetic relationships and honest critical conversations over time. To try, face criticism, and invite it again represents commitment to an assumed shared humanity of self and other, without which no humane story of our collective ancestors can be told. The Summit reached out to incorporate representatives of many of the major United States’ historic sites, with differing experiences along the continuum of public engagement. This document demonstrates how our best ideas and intentions can be executed to construct new history. We need a new history at plantation sites and museums where many of the previously told stories are now shown to be a conceited gloss on the past. Dishonestly uplifting for some. Denigrating to others. If future generations are to descend from more than this we must do things differently than before. African diasporic scholars have been saying this for a long time. 18 The new community of interpretation conjoined here represents listening. Although white Americans are divided, the Virginia General Assembly’s Remembering Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom Project (2010-2015) showed that most want to know the truth. This rubric enables those who decide to tell it. One hopes that given this clear road map, sites and the professions who run them, will proceed to the locations of shared power and voice with descendants. These are the locations of the democratization of knowledge, broad public interest, empathy, and growing markets. Thankfully, many organizations who participated in the Summit, have arrived at the location where they can begin to utilize the criteria of the rubric for its guiding support. We hope and expect that other foundations and funders will follow because descendant engagement, and the discussions and truths it allows, is the right thing to do. This methodology is built for climbing, not resting. The inclusion of community “voices” or “assessing community needs” is not intended as the researcher’s or interpreter’s evaluation of what is important, but his or her acceptance of what is important to others; not only their feelings but their articulate research questions to be pursued. The international and other contextualization of the complex lives of the enslaved also includes grounding their humanity in the ordinary civic life of the African cultures from which they came. It would include the abundant evidence of their definitively human resistance to enslavement, which humanizes them despite its telling critique of the brutality of the white enslavement they resisted. The virtue of white forefathers and mothers will not stand unblemished by the human story of blacks which the Summit urges you to tell. Whites will have to be interpreted as human, too. Over a century ago, Haitian anthropologist, Antenor Firmin wrote, “Man… achieves by making his own history.” He was not describing false and fanciful narratives of the past. He, far more than the racist anthropologists to whom he was responding, believed in adherence to evidence. He meant we make history every day. That the future is in our hands. Perhaps our future best interpretations of the past will not come by the easiest process, but they will be our responsibility. 19 BENCHM A RKS F OR ENGAGING DE S CENDA N T COMM U NI T IE S AT HIS T ORIC SI T E S Y OR CT NT NG Y NT FA AR LE PI IE TIS VA PL LO IC SA EM BI OF VE AM UN PR EX DE M U LT I-D I S CI P L IN A RY R E S E A RCH Sources and Methodology Multi-vocality Collaboration Transparency and Accountability Accessibility R EL AT I ON S HIP B U IL D IN G High Standards Expressed Commitment Structural Parity Institutionalization Proactive Evaluation IN T ER P R E TAT I ON Multi-Dimensional Representations of People Descendant Community Engagement Institutional Commitment Tools/Interpretive Techniques Inclusive and equitable narratives Audience 20 Contributing Writers Michael Blakey, Ph.D. – National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Anthropology, College of William and Mary; Montpelier Descendant Community Terry P. Brock, Ph.D. – Senior Research Archaeologist, James Madison’s Montpelier Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell – Curator. Writer. Activist. Elizabeth Chew, Ph.D. – Vice President for Museum Programs, James Madison’s Montpelier Christian Cotz – Director of Education and Visitor Engagement, James Madison’s Montpelier Patrice Grimes, Ph.D. – Professor of Education, University of Virginia; Montpelier Descendant Community Shawn Halifax – Cultural History Interpretation Coordinator, Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission Hilarie M. Hicks – Senior Research Historian, James Madison’s Montpelier Melissa Kerr – Education Department Coordinator, James Madison’s Montpelier Elizabeth Ladner – former Director of Research, James Madison’s Montpelier Talitha LeFlouria, Ph.D. – Lisa Smith Discovery Associate Professor in African and African-American Studies, University of Virginia, Carter G. Woodson Institute Jessie MacLeod – Associate Curator, George Washington’s Mount Vernon George Monroe Jr. – Highland Descendant Judge Rohulamin Quander, J.D. – Mount Vernon Descendant; retired Senior Administrative Judge for Washington D.C.; President, Quander Historical and Educational Society, Inc. Matthew Reeves, PhD – Director of Archaeology and Landscape Restoration, James Madison’s Montpelier Justin Reid – Director of African American Programs, Virginia Humanities Natalie Robertson, Ph.D. – Professor of History, Hampton University Ashley Rogers – Director of Museum Operations, Whitney Plantation Museum Hannah Scruggs – Research Associate and Head of Montpelier’s African American Descendants’ Project Noelle Trent, Ph.D. – Director of Interpretation, Collections and Education, National Civil Rights Museum Ahmad Ward – CEO, Mitchelville Preservation Project David Young, Ph.D. – Executive Director, Delaware Historical Society Design – Chris Danemayer, Proun Design, LLC 21 Summit Participants Dina Bailey (Facilitator)– CEO, Mountain Top Vision; Adjunct Faculty, Johns Hopkins University, Advanced Academic Programs Joy Banner, Ph.D. – Marketing Director and Descendant, Whitney Plantation Museum Ed Baptist, Ph.D. – Professor of History and American Studies, Cornell University Niya Bates – Public Historian of Slavery and African American Life, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Michael Blakey, Ph.D. – National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Anthropology, College of William and Mary; Montpelier Descendant Community Sara Bon-Harper, Ph.D. – CEO, James Monroe’s Highland Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell – Curator. Writer. Activist. April Burns – Monticello Descendant; President AAHGS Chapter, Burke Brown Steppe Genealogy Group of Charlottesville/Albemarle Greg Carr, Ph.D. – Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Chair of Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University; Adjunct Faculty, Howard School of Law. Elizabeth Chew, Ph.D. – Vice President for Museum Programs, James Madison’s Montpelier Ann Chinn – Executive Director, Middle Passage Project; Mount Vernon Descendant Maureen Costello – Director of Teaching Tolerance, Southern Poverty Law Center Christian Cotz – Director of Education and Visitor Engagement, James Madison’s Montpelier Chris Danemayer – Principal, Proun Design, LLC LaNesha deBardelaben, Ph.D. – Executive Director, Northwest African American Museum Omar Eaton-Martinez – Independent Scholar Patrice Grimes, Ph.D. –Associate Professor of Education, University of Virginia; Montpelier Descendant Community Shawn Halifax – Cultural History Interpretation Coordinator, Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission Evelyn Higginbotham, Ph.D. – Professor of History, and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University; founder and coordinator, Social Engagement Initiative of the Department of African and African Americans Studies; History Department Chair; Board Chair, ASALH Kat Imhoff – CEO, The Montpelier Foundation Nicole Ivy, Ph.D. – Director of Inclusion, American Alliance of Museums Abdul H. Jamaludeen, M.D. – Head of Internal Medicine Practice, Hampton and Virginia Beach; Member of Community Faculty, Eastern Virginia Medical School. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D. – Associate Professor of History, Ohio State University, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity Jacqueline Johnson – Diversity and Inclusion Educator Margaret Jordan – Montpelier Descendant Community and Montpelier Board of Directors member 22 Sean Kelley – Senior Vice President, Director of Interpretation, Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site Elizabeth Ladner – former Director of Research, James Madison’s Montpelier Talitha LeFlouria, Ph.D. – Lisa Smith Discovery Associate Professor in African and American-Studies, University of Virginia, Carter G. Woodson Institute Lauranett Lee, Ph.D. – Visiting Lecturer, Jepson School, of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond; Founding Curator of African American History, Virginia Historical Society Brent Leggs – Director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, National Trust for Historic Preservation; Assistant Clinical Professor, School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, University of Maryland Jessie MacLeod – Associate Curator, George Washington’s Mount Vernon Joe McGill – Founder, Slave Dwelling Project George Monroe Jr. – Highland Descendant Giles Morris – Executive Director, Charlottesville Tomorrow Leontyne Clay Peck – Principal, Leontyne Peck Consulting; Montpelier Descendant Community Lee Pringle – Middleton Place Descendant; Founder and Artistic Director, Colour of Music Festival Judge Rohulamin Quander, J.D. – Mount Vernon Descendant, retired Senior Administrative Judge for Washington D.C. Matthew Reeves, Ph.D. – Director of Archaeology and Landscape Restoration, James Madison’s Montpelier Justin Reid – Director of African American Programs, Virginia Humanities Natalie Robertson, Ph.D. – Professor of History, Hampton University Ashley Rogers – Director of Museum Operations, Whitney Plantation Museum Hannah Scruggs – Research Associate and Head of Montpelier’s African American Descendants’ Project Kate Shuster, Ph.D. – Shuster Consulting, Inc.; Teaching Tolerance at Southern Poverty Law Center Marcel Sykes – former Manager of Interpretive Programs, James Madison’s Montpelier Tracey Todd – Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Middleton Place Noelle Trent, Ph.D. – Director of Interpretation, Collections and Education, National Civil Rights Museum Max van Balgooy – President, Engaging Places; Assistant Professor, Museum Studies Program, George Washington University; Director, History Leadership Institute Ahmad Ward – CEO, Mitchelville Preservation Project David Young, Ph.D. – Executive Director, Delaware Historical Society 23 Appendix I The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, based on the scientific method and derived originally in the business world, can be widely applied as a form of quality control to continually improve results in many enterprises. The detailed, four-step process tests a change that has been implemented within a real world setting, guiding the thinking process through stages of careful study. A team develops a plan, carries out the test, observes and learns from the consequences, and determines what further modifications should be made to the test, opening the way to further refinements. The cycle can continue indefinitely until the desired standard in process or product is achieved. Appendix II Freeman Tilden’s Interpreting our Heritage, first published in 1957 by the University of North Carolina Press, expressed the six principles of interpretation as: 1) Any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile. 2) Information, as such, is not Interpretation. Interpretation is revelation based upon information. But they are entirely different things. However all interpretation includes information. 3) Interpretation is an art, which combines many arts, whether the materials presented are scientific, historical or architectural. Any art is in some degree teachable. 4) The chief aim of Interpretation is not instruction, but provocation. 5) Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part, and must address itself to the whole man rather than any phase. 6) Interpretation addressed to children (say up to the age of twelve) should not be a dilution of the presentation to adults, but should follow a fundamentally different approach. To be at its best it will require a separate program. The National Summit on Teaching Slavery was made possible by the generous support of Sonjia Smith. Rubric development was funded by the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation with support from The JPB Foundation. 24 5 The Holt Building 11 Shelton/McGinness Home 115 Fourth Street NW 517 Brown Street Pr es  An to  de nA Heritage Trails Starr Hill Community rso ve n et nS nu re tre e St et le ar In 1909 Charles B. Holt, now known for his John Gibbons Shelton was principal of Union m be AFRICAN AMERICANS IN CHARLOTTESVILLE Remarkable for the diversity of its many talented and Al “Rock House” on Preston Ave., established Ridge/Albemarle Training School (ATS) from accomplished residents and for its cohesiveness and an “Umbrella Hospital” and furniture repair 1903 to 1930, and published a local newspaper, Page S treet Starr Hill endurance as a neighborhood through a century of change, Starr Hill is a window on the past in the center business here. The building, now gone, at various times housed a barber shop, real estate entrepreneurs, T. J. Sellers’ weekly African American newspaper The the Charlottesville Messenger, from 1910 to 1927. He attended the Jefferson School and went to New York in 1876 to complete his NW of a modern city. Some streets in the neighborhood Reflector, and Richmond Beneficial Life Insurance Company, which education. After coming home to teach, he treet was managed by Sellers and later by Eugene Williams. spent many summers working in New York as Hard have families that have lived there since 1900. The area 8th S y Dr ive a newspaper correspondent. In the 1948 ATS yearbook, his students was the home of a legendary football player as well wrote that he had brought them the “culture, dignity, and refinement” 10 as Charlottesville’s first African American physician. of New York City. His Brown Street home, bought in 1910, later Journalists, entrepreneurs, ministers, and many beloved 6 Jokers Barber Shop became the home of Rebecca McGinness, his niece. 9 406 Commerce Street educators also lived in the neighborhood. From 1882, when African American Methodists pooled resources  Rebecca McGinness, affectionately called Mayor of Starr Hill, taught at Jefferson ee tN W t NW tr 8t hS to purchase a small lot for Wesley Chapel, until 2002, School for forty-five years. Her husband, 11 Stree Frizzell “Zeke” Jones established Jokers Brow n Stre P t NW et Barber Shop in 1936. Veteran barber James Melvin, owned and operated a popular tailor 5th when Starr Hill residents united with alumni and friends Stree “Jim” Payne reported that when he began shop on Vinegar Hill. Rebecca taught 12 8 1 to save Jefferson School, Starr Hill has been all about 4th working at the six-chair shop in 1938, children who later became homeowners 13  Starr Hill 14 aspiration, cooperation, and faith. haircuts were thirty-five cents and shaves in the neighborhood, and she worked with Park < > reet University of Virginia 15 Jefferson School Downtown Mall were fifteen cents. The shop, named for the some of them in the 1970s to save Starr m St 16 City Center t NW Hill from decline and urban renewal. It was called Starr Hill, 17 Crea Jokers Social Club, a local men’s club, has 7 Key Stree been a popular meeting place for African she liked to tell them, because it was the hill where the stars of West 18 M ain S treet Comm erce S 2 7th Site open to the public or open for worship Americans through the years. Other longtime Jokers barbers were the community lived. She lived to be 107 and, as noted in her 21 treet Road NW 6  Private home or business, not open to the public James “Hank” Jones, John Daniels, Thomas Martin, Russell Arnette, obituary, is remembered for “her keen intelligence and wit, and 19 3 treet McIntire and Clarence Massie, Jr. great dignity.” 20 6th S 4 P Parking 5  Historic location only Wyatt Family Home 7 Janie Porter Barrett Day Nursery 12 t SW 501 Commerce Street 213 Sixth Street NW   Stree 1 Jefferson School 7th 233 Fourth Street NW Deve Local adults have fond memories of Philip Y. Wyatt, a well-known barber in lan S treet | P childhood hours here between 1947 and Charlottesville for over thirty years, and his W et S The Jefferson School opened in 1865, just the nursery’s move to Ridge Street in 1958. wife Lula, an Albemarle County teacher, Stre This impressive two-story building with raised five children in Starr Hill. Their son 5th months after Emancipation. Many of the first students, including Jesse Sammons, Rives Corinthian columns has had many lives. Philip, a dentist in Fredericksburg, was Minor, and Benjamin Tonsler, taught the Originally built in 1922 for Bethel Baptist president of the Virginia NAACP and member Church, from 1938 until 1946 it was of the NAACP national board. His sisters SW W following generations in the city and county. t tree et S et Dice Abbott Funeral Home, run by Otelia Abbott Marion and Ruth had long careers as tre ge S The school moved to a new building on Stree Stre t hS Jefferson School teachers. In 1963, Ruth’s daughter Ruth Coles Rid Coles. It was once again a church, Charlottesville Church of 4th The African American story in Charlottesville-Albemarle /2t Fourth Street NW in 1894 and Jefferson High 71 remains largely untold. The Heritage Trails focus on sites that School was built next to it in 1926. City Christ, before becoming a private residence. Harris, pictured, became the first Black woman to earn a state provide a broad understanding of the lives of enslaved, free and county Black high schools were consolidated in 1951 with the license as a certified public accountant in Virginia. 500 feet Black and emancipated peoples in our area. building of Burley High School. Jefferson High School then became the city’s all Black elementary school until its closing in 1965. See reverse for African Americans in Albemarle. 2 John Wesley M. E. Church 8 Eudora Lias Home 13 Alice Gatewood Minor Home 16 W. E. Jackson Family Home & Office 19 J. F. Bell Funeral Home 201 Fourth Street NW 218 Fifth Street NW 209 Sixth Street NW 204 Sixth Street NW 108 Sixth Street NW      Heritage Trails African American members left Charlottesville’s First Methodist Eudora Lias (seated, right front), undaunted Widowed at thirty, Alice Minor achieved uncommon business success W. E. Jackson Jr. had this house built around 1925. He grew up at 520 Pearl Street, son of William E. and Nannie Cox Jackson. Nannie, Around 1925, local African American contractor Charles Coles built this funeral Episcopal Church South to form John Wesley M. E. Church. By 1887 by a childhood illness that left her unable for a woman of her generation. A professional dressmaker whose elite they had built a chapel at Fourth and Commerce Streets where to walk, was a newspaper correspondent, clientele included wives of University of Virginia presidents, she also a Jefferson School teacher, lived with him and his family here after parlor with an upstairs residence, and J. F. Bell in 1908 they hosted the Alexandria District Washington M. E. stenographer, and typist. At the age of had a sideline growing and selling boxwoods, flowers, cherries, and her husband died. The Pearl Street home was razed in 1939 for Funeral Home moved here from its original Conference with “A Large Number of Notable Divines Present,” nineteen she started a private kindergarten grapes. Neighborhood children liked to hold meetings in her home, construction of Lane High School. location on Vinegar Hill. It is the oldest according to the Baltimore Afro-American. The church dissolved in her home, and became a beloved teacher. popping corn around her pot-bellied stove. She recruited them to family-run funeral home in central Virginia, as Cox Poster Advertising began with James This Starr Hill/Union Ridge trail map is the before the city school board bought the lot in 1932. Between 1937 and 1951, she wrote 700 harvest cherries and grapes, some for regular customers and some for well as the area's oldest existing business Rinaldo Cox posting theatrical advertisements Charlottesville columns for the Norfolk themselves and their families. She lived well, supporting herself with owned by people of color. The Bell family has on walls and fences. His nephew W. E. Jackson first in a series that will form a compendium Journal and Guide. A voracious reader, she was once described as style for ninety-nine years. Jr. continued the business as Jackson Poster contributed to the community over the years. Raymond Bell was “the most conversant person to be found anywhere on almost widely admired for his work as Public Relations Chair of the local of information about historical African Dr. John A. Jackson Home & Office Advertising here in his lower level office, adding 3 NAACP during desegregation, and later as the first African American any subject.” billboards for national products. He came to be 125 Fourth Street NW to serve on the Charlottesville School Board. American neighborhoods in our region. Additional information about each site  14 Dr. George R. Ferguson Home & Office 206 Sixth Street NW known as “Billpost” Jackson. His son Edward Rinaldo Jackson expanded further, providing will soon be available through the African After receiving a D.D.S. degree from Howard University in 1914, Dr. Jackson began a 9 Roosevelt Brown Home 230 Fifth Street NW  outdoor advertising for major corporations, local businesses, and charities. 20 First Baptist Church After almost twenty years at 307 West Main, 632 West Main Street American Heritage Center’s website successful dental practice in this house where he and his wife Otelia Love raised seven  Dr. George R. Ferguson Sr. moved here 17 Reverend R. C. Quarles Home children. Two of their sons, Ellard “Punjab” around 1929 and saw patients in the lower 201 Sixth Street NW jeffschoolheritagecenter.org/trails where The birthplace and boyhood home of New African American members separated from you will have an opportunity to contribute and George Franklin, became prominent dentists in Charlottesville and Lynchburg. York Giants football legend Roosevelt Brown was here. His grandmother Virginia Tyler level office. Son George R. Ferguson Jr. had a funeral home and was president of the  Charlottesville Baptist Church in 1863 and formed the city’s first African American Mrs. Jackson was grand secretary of the Jackson, then a 30-year-old widow, bought Charlottesville NAACP. Granddaughter Olivia Before becoming pastor at First Baptist in 1895, Rev. Quarles pastored information or photographs to help broaden church. The 831 members met with a white Order of Eastern Star of Virginia for thirty years. As president of the the property in 1909, and the family lived Ferguson was one of the Charlottesville churches in Buffalo and Saint Paul and baptized almost 400 people. minister, as law required, in the parent church Charlottesville Crusade for Voters, an organization she helped Twelve, who led the 1959 desegregation of He and his wife Mary Groom, both from Louisa County, raised a large our understanding of the lives of African here until their house was razed by the city basement on East Jefferson, but soon moved organize in 1959, she was responsible for the registration of many for the 1958 Carver Recreation Center city schools. This duplex was home and office for three African successful family here. A graduate of Richmond Theological Institute, to the old Delevan Hotel on West Main and Americans in our area. We greatly appreciate Black voters. The Jacksons provided a recreation site for African addition to the Jefferson School. Roosevelt’s American doctors. After Dr. Ferguson died in 1932, Dr. Edward W. he wrote, “My course of study has drawn me closer to the people, became Delevan Baptist. Their first Black American children at their country property in Union Ridge. sister Lyria distinguished herself as an educator, first at Burley High Stratton was here until 1940. Dr. Marshall T. Garrett then lived and and has caused me to yearn for their up-building, intellectually, the hard work of all who have contributed pastor was Rev. William Gibbons, a man of “dynamic force and zeal.” School and later as an elementary school principal in Ithaca, NY. practiced here until moving to 320 West Main just before 1950. financially, morally, and spiritually, as never before.” Noted pastor Rev. B. F. Bunn founded the local NAACP in 1947. to making these initial trails possible. Renamed First Colored Baptist when today’s building was completed in 1884, the church is now known as First Baptist Church. 4 Dr. G. F. Johnson Home & Office Lewis, Kelser, & Bullock Home Ebenezer Baptist Church 123 Fourth Street NW 10 Piedmont Hospital 15 18 205 Sixth Street NW 113 Sixth Street NW To learn more visit  232 Fifth Street NW  21 Bullock’s Restaurant jeffschoolheritagecenter.org/trails Dr. Johnson began his practice here after  Ebenezer Baptist Church met at Daughters of 810 West Main Street Rev. M. T. Lewis and his wife Mary lived here receiving a medical degree from Howard University in 1911. He and Dr. Jackson each This site opened in January 1887, in an old brick house on the city gasworks lot at the north end of Fifth Street. The hospital fund, with their children Lottie and Walter in the Zion Hall for their first two years. Led by Rev.  1880s. After he died, Mary married Robert Alexander Truatt, former pastor of First Baptist, In the 1880s, Burkley Bullock had a restaurant built a house with a central door to the home begun by Charlottesville women in 1884 “to furnish a retreat the congregation built a church on this spot in Kelser, teacher, entrepreneur, and president at Virginia Midland Junction, where the Amtrak and end door to an office. His wife Peachie for the sick of both races,” included contributions from concerts 1894. In 1907 that church burned, and in 233 4th ST NW, 2nd floor of Piedmont Industrial and Land Improvement Station now stands. According to family lore, Carr, a Jefferson School teacher, was president by Belle Gibbons and suppers at African American churches. 1908 Rev. T. D. Atkins led in building today’s Charlottesville VA 22903 Company. Lottie, a Jefferson School teacher, once a customer rushing to catch a train or- of Virginia State Federation of Colored The University of Virginia provided doctors and medicine, and church, designed by the first Black architect married Charles H. Bullock, teacher, local dered a fried chicken leg, and Burkley’s son 434.260.8720 Women’s Clubs from 1954 to 1958. After used it as a teaching hospital. The Piedmont Hospital closed in newspaper correspondent for The Colored licensed in Virginia, John A. Lankford. Rev. E. D. Albert ran to the chicken coop in the rear yard, Dr. Johnson’s death “Miss Peachie” remained in the home many years 1896 after the University built a dispensary with clinics and a McCreary later added the stained glass windows. He and Rev. Elisha G. Partners: Burke Brown Steppe Chapter of the American, and later Secretary of the YMCA in Montclair, New Jersey. killed a chicken, cut off one leg, picked off the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical with her second husband, Minor F. Jackson. surgical amphitheater. Hall, an eight-year member of Charlottesville City Council, are remem- On retirement the Bullocks and Mary Kelser returned from Montclair feathers, threw it into deep hot fat, and served Society; Central Virginia History Researchers; Jefferson School African American Heritage and lived here on Sixth Street until Mary’s death in 1944. bered for leadership through times of social struggle and change. it to the customer in time for him to catch his train. Center; Preservation Piedmont; the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Wo odl a nds R oad Nannie Cox Jackson, Heritage Trails Union Ridge Community n Biographies 1865–1953 So  uth JS student, JS teacher Allentown For Location: 1, 16 k Rio Mills AFRICAN AMERICANS IN ALBEMARLE Riva Following the Civil War, a vibrant community of African S Riv outh These individuals represent some of the many nna an For na American landowners developed on a ridge crossed by Riv k talented, industrious, and resourceful African As domestic science teacher at Jefferson d Lochridge Lane er Reserv lle Roa Union Ridge School she started a hot lunch present Hydraulic, Georgetown, and Woodburn roads. Americans who struggled to establish independent program and school football team. oir Earlysvi In the years after 1865, newly-emancipated families were lives in freedom in Charlottesville and Union Ridge She encouraged students to believe in able to acquire independent farmsteads through hard  after the Civil War. The two communities, though themselves, go to college, and aim high. Jackson-Via Elementary School and its annual Nannie Cox Jackson Award were named work and cooperation. By 1890, there were more than Hydraulic Mills Rt 29 five miles apart, were knit together by strong ties in her honor. sixty land-owning families in an area centered on the of marriage and kinship and by educational and village of Hydraulic Mills on the Rivanna River. The Union 2 career aspirations. Residents often lived in one place Ridge Church and school tied together the people who 1 and attended school or went to work in the other. Robert Shelton Jones, d Cartersburg Roa lived in the neighborhoods of Cartersburg, Georgetown, 1849–1912; Farmer, carpenter Woodburn k Key Location: 6 e ee Allentown, and The Ridge. By the 1930s, Jim Crow riv Cr ar D Ivy UR Union Ridge After buying an 82-acre farm in 1881, restrictions and demographic changes had pushed many Berkm W La Road ATS Albemarle Training School he worked by day for a neighboring mb residents out of Union Ridge and the site of Hydraulic Rio Earlysville Road sR plantation owner to pay for it and raised oa JS Jefferson School d Mills village is now beneath the waters of a reservoir ad e Ro his own crops by moonlight. Jones spoke Ivy Ridg 3 0 Starr Hill Heritage Trail location built in 1966. But evocative remnants of a once-thriving 6 of needing “a strong heart to see the 0 Union Ridge Heritage Trail location sunshine in this country, but I always knew that…[it] was there.” His African American community survive today. 4 descendants include educators, physicians, and a Tuskegee airman. The Ridge John Ferris Bell, 1890–1959 Funeral director, mortician Reverend M. T. Lewis,  Rio With the exception of site 1, the sites on the Union Ridge bs Lane Ro ad Location: 19 Lam 5 1843–1883; Pastor Trail are owned by individuals or organizations. Please Mary Carr Greer E Elementary School A Hampton graduate trained as Funeral Location: 15, 20 respect these private properties by viewing them from Whit ewoo d R oa d Director in Chicago, he established J.F. d As pastor, he led Delevan Baptist’s Hydraulic Roa the outside. Parking is available only at sites 1 and 4. Drive Bell Funeral Home in 1917. He and his ten-year effort to build the church but h wife Maude Lee Bell and their three sons alt we died in 1883, just months before the on Key all kept meticulous funeral records, a key mm church was finished. His impressive Co family history resource today through the Bell family’s generosity. Site open to the public gravestone at Daughters of Zion ad Ro n Solomon Cemetery, erected by “the young men’s monumental society,”  Private site Ba rra tow cks Court reflects what loss the community felt when he died. rge Ro Roosevelt Brown, 1932–2004 Geo ad JS student, Professional football player P Parking 7 Location: 1, 9 Alice Gatewood Minor, Georgetown After beginning his football career at 1870–1969; Dressmaker, gardener Jefferson School and earning a Black Location: 13, 20 All-American title at Morgan State, Hy In 1884 she raised and sold twenty- dr uli a Rt 29 he was drafted by the New York Giants The African American story in Charlottesville-Albemarle More extensive information about all the Heritage Trail Ba seven pigs, earning enough at age cR rra ck oa sR in 1953. Six-foot-three and 255 fourteen to be the greatest contributor sites and the African Americans who lived, studied, and d oa remains largely untold. The Heritage Trails focus on sites that d 250 Bypass pounds, he was big yet nimble—he was named to the Pro Bowl toward completion of First Baptist provide a broad understanding of the lives of enslaved, free worked at these sites can be found online at: 0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1 mile nine times and led the Giants to a championship in 1956. Black and emancipated peoples in our area. Church. Always a valued church member, jeffschoolheritagecenter.org/trails In 1975, he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. she taught Sunday school for fifty years. See reverse for African Americans in Charlottesville. 1 River View Farm school curriculum as well as instruction in 6 Lambs Road Farms Ivy Creek Natural Area, 1780 Earlysville Road carpentry, cookery, farming and other trades. Lambs Road Burkley Bullock, c1835–1908 Rives Minor, 1856–1926 | P As the Albemarle Training School (ATS), for years it was the only school in a five-county  Farmer, merchant, restaurant owner Location: 21, 6 JS student; UR teacher, principal; farmer Heritage Trails Within a few years of Emancipation, freedman Hugh Carr established River View area to offer African American children an education beyond seventh grade. Under its principals from 1886 to 1950 (Jesse Scott Present Lambs Road, which retains much of its rural character, once passed through large farms purchased by African Americans after the Civil A founder of Union Ridge Church, Bullock purchased a 35-acre farm adjacent to Location: 1, 3 He was determined to achieve an farm, where he successfully raised tobacco, War. The teacher Jesse Scott Sammons owned Hugh Carr’s River View. After almost education and share his knowledge, wheat, corn, and livestock. He became Sammons, Rives Minor, John G. Shelton, and 73 acres adjoining Robert Shelton Jones’s 82- twenty years as a farmer, he moved into teaching for thirty years at the Union the largest Black landholder in the Hydraulic Mary Carr Greer), it produced a remarkable number of educators. acre “Maple Hill” and Burkley Bullock’s 35-acre Charlottesville, where he owned and Ridge School. He worked on his Mills-Union Ridge area. After his death, When county schools were integrated in 1959, ATS closed its doors farm. The daughters of all three men became operated a popular restaurant and was an enterprising merchant. 60-acre farm, largely at night. The Minor-Preston Educational his daughter Mary Carr Greer, longtime and most of its buildings were demolished. teachers; Robert Shelton Jones is pictured with He was described as “one of the pioneer businessmen of the city.” Fund carries on his values today. Please note that many of these sites are principal of the Albemarle Training School, 3 of his 5 daughters. In the 20th century, Charlottesville dentist Dr. John and her husband, Conly Greer, lived at River View. Greer, a private property. Those that cannot be A. Jackson owned Maple Hill and built a swimming pool there. The well-known agricultural extension agent, made River View a model 4 Union Ridge Baptist Church farm became a haven for African American children from Charlottesville Hugh Carr, c1840–1914 Jesse Scott Sammons, for Black and white farmers alike. Their house and barn survive at accessed by the public are indicated on the 2980 Hydraulic Road and Albemarle County, for camping, gardening, and summer sports. Farmer 1853–1901; JS student; | what is now the Ivy Creek Natural Area, a 215-acre preserve open map. We greatly appreciate your respect to the public. Visitors can learn about the hundred-year history P Location: 1 UR teacher, principal; farmer of the Carr-Greer farm through an interpretive kiosk, brochures, Location: 1, 3, 6 The cornerstone of the historic Union Ridge Born in slavery near Hydraulic Mills, Carr for the private homes, businesses, and self-guided walks, and eleven miles of trails. 7 Georgetown Neighborhood community was the Baptist church, organized was a skilled farmer and farm manager The freeborn son of a Hemings descendant properties that are important to telling shortly after the Civil War and located at this Georgetown Road and lower Hydraulic Road who began purchasing property in the and the owner-operator of the Hydraulic the African American story in our area. site since the late 1870s. Union Ridge Church  late 1860s and left over a hundred acres to his heirs at his death. He and his wife, Mills, he combined teaching with tending his 72-acre farm. A recognized leader at 2 Cartersburg Neighborhood served as a place of worship as well as a In the 1870s, freedpeople from more than Texie Mae Hawkins, instilled the importance of education in their the state level in religious, agricultural, and political organizations, We are always interested in identifying new Woodburn Road community center for African American families twenty families (Blakey, Cary, Flannagan, sites of interest, and encourage you to  living up to several miles away. Its sanctuary was the location of the Albemarle Training Gilmore, Harris, Magruder, and Solomon, seven children, who became teachers and community leaders. he was remembered as a “shining light” in his community. among others) began acquiring small plots Present Woodburn Road was once a major School’s graduation exercises and meetings of religious and political share your images, letters and artifacts with organizations. In the 1920s, the church established a cemetery half a of land along present Georgetown and Dr. George R. Ferguson, John Gibbons Shelton, route to Earlysville, passing through several Hydraulic roads. Horace Solomon, pictured, 1877–1932; Physician us at jeffschoolheritagecenter.org/trails. large antebellum plantations and crossing mile to the south (Site 5). The Union Ridge Church and congregation 1859–1952; JS student, whose four-acre property is recalled in the the Rivanna River at a now-vanished bridge. continue to flourish today. Location: 14 ATS principal, newspaper editor name Solomon Court, was notable for raising After the Civil War, a community of whites Location: 1, 11, 3 some of the largest and finest hogs in the county. Described in An Ohio native and Howard University and African Americans, called Cartersburg, Medical Department graduate, he was 1915 as the “thriving colored settlement” of Georgetown, the area He expanded ATS and published a Black grew up along this road. The freedpeople, 5 Historical Burial Grounds today bears little resemblance to the rural scene of a century ago. the first African American physician with newspaper here during Jim Crow. Fellow including the Armstead, Gofney, Key, Winn, a sustained practice in Albemarle County. Union Ridge and Lincoln Cemeteries journalist T. J. Sellers observed that he and Woodfolk families, purchased one- to eight-acre plots of In 1933, a national medical journal between 2820 Hydraulic Road and Woodgate Court had a “burning passion for knowledge”  land on the edges of the former plantations. They farmed their described him as “the beloved physician” who “was gentle, and praised his “high devotion to duty.”In 1913 Shelton declared, small, steep plots and worked as farmhands, blacksmiths, railroad African American Land Ownership modest, friendly to all, and easily approached by the most lowly.” “all the Negro needs is a chance and if he were given that chance To learn more visit employees, ministers, domestic servants, and laundresses. Today 1870–1940 In the early 1920s, two cemeteries for African there are no heights too steep for him to climb.” jeffschoolheritagecenter.org/trails many houses are unoccupied, bought by the state in the 1980s Americans were established along Hydraulic for a highway that was never built. Road, half a mile south of Union Ridge Baptist ■ Map key: African American owned land Mary Carr Greer, 1894–1973 Church. The traditional practice of burying UR student, ATS teacher and principal Reverend Tinsley Woodfolk, 1848–1907 In the 19th century farmers and plantation owners brought their family members on private property was giving Location: 1, 3 Minister grain to the mills of the bustling village of Hydraulic Mills, 3 Albemarle Training School way to interments in church or public cemeteries. Hugh and Texie Carr’s daughter attended Location: 2 233 4th ST NW, 2nd floor located at the junction of Ivy Creek and the Rivanna River. After 338 Rio Road West With burial choices restricted by segregation, the Civil War, emancipated African Americans worked to acquire the Union Ridge School and then taught He was a prominent minister who founded several Albemarle  Charlottesville VA 22903 a local Black newspaper cited “a future their own farms in the area, and established their own church there, when it was the Albemarle Training County churches including Earlysville’s Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. 434.260.8720 burying-ground” for African Americans as one of the area’s greatest and school. The thriving community of Black-owned farms and School. From 1931 to 1950 she was He and his brother, Rev. David Woodfolk, lived in Cartersburg and In 1886, fifteen years after free public education became law in needs in 1921. The church and Charlottesville funeral home owner Partners: Burke Brown Steppe Chapter of the homesteads known as Union Ridge stretched for more than its principal. Greer Elementary School on married sisters who had been enslaved on an adjacent plantation. Virginia, the county purchased this site for the Union Ridge School. J. F. Bell purchased adjacent parcels, establishing the Union Ridge and Afro-American Historical and Genealogical three miles, connecting the neighborhoods of Georgetown in Lambs Lane is named in her honor. Rev. T. W. Woodfolk’s descendants remain in the area. Society; Central Virginia History Researchers; In 1915 it was expanded into a teacher-training school with a high Lincoln Cemeteries. Burials continue at both cemeteries, which have Jefferson School African American Heritage the south and Allentown and Cartersburg to the north. Center; Preservation Piedmont; the Virginia several hundred surviving gravestones. Foundation for the Humanities. UVA walktrail #14F REV#8 > REV2#12F_Layout 1 9/22/20 1:45 AM Page 1 Uni vers ENSLAVED AFRICAN AMERICANS ity A ven 3 Henry Martin Alderman LIbrary UVA Chapel ue / Rt 2 at the University of Virginia 50B |  UVA Walking Tour According to oral history, Henry Martin was n 3 C Walking Tour Enslaved African Americans at the University born at Monticello on July 4, 1826—the day Jefferson died. He was sold to the Carr family 4 Hotel A at Jefferson’s estate sale in 1827 and until The University of Virginia utilized the labor of enslaved 1847 remained enslaved at a property in 5 Mew Rotunda s Al Albemarle County. In 1847, Mr. Martin was ley Pavilion I 2 African Americans from the earliest days of its 6 d rented to Mrs. Dabney Carr, who ran a Roa construction in 1817 until the end of the American 7 1 boarding house just north of the University. ick Pavilion III Pavilion II orm Civil War. Most of the University’s first enslaved Until the general emancipation in 1865, Martin hauled coal, delivered McC laborers were rented from local slave-owners and wood, and worked as a domestic laborer at her boarding house. P Pavilion IV In freedom, he took a job with the University as janitor and bell ringer, worked alongside whites and free Blacks in all the Pavilion V tasks associated with constructing the Academical Village. When the first students arrived in March 1825, which he mentioned in an 1890 letter to College Topics, a student publication that was planning to report on his life story. He would go on to work at UVA for over 50 years. Martin routinely awoke at 8 The Lawn Pavilion VI Downtown Mall > 4 a.m. to tend to his responsibilities. It was Martin who rang the bell 10 enslaved African Americans worked in the pavilions, nge to spread the alarm when the first wisps of smoke were spotted in Hotel E t Ra hotels, and the Rotunda; maintained classrooms, the Rotunda fire of 1895. “I was as true to that bell as to my God,” Eas Pavilion VIII laboratories, and the library; and served the daily needs Martin said in a 1914 interview. He died in 1915 and is buried in the McG uffe Pavilion IX Daughters of Zion Cemetery in Charlottesville. ad y Dr 9 Ro ive of the students and faculty, especially in providing r mic k M cCo cooking and cleaning services. This self-guided tour Pavilion X ive is an introduction to some of the significant people, 4 Anatomical Theater l Dr | pita Hotel F places, and events that shaped the early history | Hos of African Americans at the University of Virginia. By 1824, Jefferson’s vision for the University For further information see slavery.virginia.edu. included a tiered anatomical amphitheater for observing dissections. The Board of Visitors approved Jefferson’s design for the building in Key early 1825. It opened in 1827 and would remain in use until the early twentieth century. A separate student dissection lab nearby was Cabell Hall Site open to the public added within a few years. Nineteenth century  Exterior viewing only, building not open to the public medical faculty and students commonly stole the corpses of recently buried African Americans from cemeteries for use in their classrooms.  Historic location only By the late 1840s, the University was competing for cadavers with  Historic marker other medical schools in the state. Professional grave robbers known as “Resurrectionists” were hired in Richmond, Alexandria, and Norfolk. P Parking These men primarily targeted African American burial sites to meet the University’s demand for dozens of cadavers per session. The University rented an enslaved man named Lewis from carpenter George Spooner Front cover: Sally Cottrell Cole was an enslaved maid and seamstress specifically to clean up after the cadaver experiments. On at least one who labored for Professor Thomas Hewitt Key in Pavilion VI (site 9) occasion, Lewis was forced to grave rob locally. Because of these between 1824–1827. Professor Key arranged for her manumission duties, the University community referred to him as “Anatomical Lewis.” upon his departure from the University in 1827. Cole remained in During his time at UVA, Lewis lived in an outbuilding in Anatomy Charlottesville until her death in 1873. 11 50' 100' 500 feet professor John S. Davis’s Pavilion VII garden. Lewis, after decades toiling Back Cover: Henry Martin as the Anatomical Hall attendant, died in 1857. ENSLAVED AFRICAN AMERICANS Rotunda and 5 Hotel A 8 Mrs. Gray’s Kitchen 10 Violence Against the Enslaved 1 at the University of Virginia Bricks in the Academical Village    Hotels are interspersed among the student Completed in 1830, this 1½ story Hotel E In the course of carrying out their responsibilities, enslaved people Walking Tour One of the most overlooked legacies of rooms on the East and West Ranges. They were ‘office’ with two rooms was known as Mrs. interacted with white students in spaces throughout the Academical enslaved labor are the bricks that cover the rented to Hotelkeepers, each of whom owned Gray’s kitchen. It served as both quarters and Village on a regular basis. Unsurprisingly, those daily interactions with Academical Village. Enslaved workers dug or rented many enslaved people. The enslaved workspace for the enslaved. Mrs. Gray had students could and did turn violent. Students resorted to inflicting the clay, fired the bricks, hauled them to daily fresh water to the students, tended fires, the kitchen structure expanded in 1844, physical violence upon the bodies of free and enslaved laborers for a Grounds, and laid them to build this university. clean rooms and public spaces, and prepared adding an “apartment for the lodging of variety of often imagined “offences,” including insolence, impertinent The brick-making began in 1817 with a the meals that were served to students in the servants.” Records document that a dozen language, or a perceived lack of attention to duties. Failure to change a team comprised largely of enslaved men, Hotels. In 1830, the Hotelkeeper here enslaved or more enslaved people resided at Hotel E. plate at the dinner table or presumed negligence in preparing a dormitory but at least one woman and several children twelve people who may have lived in the basement and in garden room or changing bed linens could result in a violent interaction. One was William, a young boy who worked as a dormitory and also worked in the brick yards. In 1823, outbuildings. The population of enslaved people in the Academical Enslaved individuals who did not speak to white students with respect dining hall servant. In 1834, several students boarding with an enslaved man named Charles was Village fluctuated between 90 and 150 or more annually in the decades and deference were also putting themselves at risk. The slave system Walking Tours of Grounds before emancipation. University records document that students Mrs. Gray complained that William was “impertinent” and that he was upheld by both violence and the routine threat of violence. responsible for digging the clay and manning did not “attend well” at the rooms. Under pressure from the faculty, one of the kilns with the help of six enslaved resulted to physical violence against enslaved people regularly. William was “withdrawn” from serving the student dormitories. At UVA, the enslaved endured beatings, whippings, and even sexual A set of thematically-driven walking boys rented out from John H. Cocke. In 1835, Mrs. Gray complained to the faculty that a student boarder assault. As one student explained in response to his attack upon an Enslaved men Dick, Lewis, Nelson, and had “struck her servant William in her presence” and that the enslaved child, “whenever a servant is insolent…he will take upon tours, allow you explore the Sandy were also rented to the brickyard, 6 The University Gardens student was rude. The student defended his behavior, stating that himself the right of punishing without the consent of the master” University of Virginia, including and worked long hours by the kiln. That Garden 3 “he would do so [strike her servant] whenever it pleased him.” because “correction of a servant for impertinence…may be defended same year, as part of Rotunda construction, Faculty sided with the student in concluding that William was on the ground of necessity for maintaining due subordination.” a tour focusing on the history of free man of color Robert Battles hauled over 176,000 bricks and “highly offensive in manner, & impertinent in language to Mr. Harris A complaint against an enslaved person for an offense could lead to enslaved African Americans at UVA a few tons of sand to the University during a five-month stretch. Over the decades, dozens of buildings— & is habitually as in his conduct to others.” William was subsequently their removal from duties, or even from the University. Furthermore, even For his Herculean efforts, he was paid $170. Enslaved workers also smokehouse, kitchens, privies, woodsheds, and through places, people, and events. removed from any attendance on the students. when students were judged by faculty to be at fault, their actions were carved out the terrace levels on the lawn, creating the unique enslaved living quarters—were added to these only reprimanded and very rarely led to any meaningful punishment. landscape that you see today. Many of the enslaved were highly spaces. Enclosed by tall serpentine walls and • Available for iPhone, iPad, skilled at construction, carpentry, stone cutting, and blacksmithing. largely hidden from view, the garden work yards 9 McGuffey Cottage and Android  They contributed to some of the more intricate design work seen provided a place to butcher hogs, cook, do laundry, and perform the many other tasks 11 Catherine Foster Site in the details of the architecture on Grounds. library.virginia.edu/map/walking-tours expected of the enslaved community. These were McGuffey Cottage is all that remains of a | | the primary spaces where enslaved people worked, lived, and communed row of outbuildings located to the west and During the expansion of a parking lot east of 2 Enslaved Labor Plaque on University Grounds. By the twentieth century, most of those rear of Pavilion IX. These were built as work Venable Lane in 1993, workers discovered several outbuildings were torn down. In the mid-twentieth century, the Garden |  Club of Virginia redesigned the gardens to their present appearance. and residential spaces, including one built grave shafts. Subsequent research identified as early as 1831 for the ‘accommodation of the historic parcel containing the graves as To learn more visit In 2007, the University installed a slate domestics.’ George Tucker, a professor belonging to Catherine Foster, a free Black memorial in the brick pavement of the of Moral Philosophy, was the first resident of woman who purchased the property in 1833. slavery.virginia.edu cryptoporticus, the passage under the south 7 The Mews  Pavilion IX, occupying it between 1825 and 32 graves were identified, as well as the terrace of the Rotunda. The plaque reads: 1845. Census records document that he foundation of an early nineteenth century house “In honor of the several hundred women owned two men and two women in 1840 and landscaped yard. As free laundresses and seamstresses, owning and men, both free and enslaved, whose The Mews, one of the few surviving original who labored there in support of Tucker’s property adjacent to the University during the antebellum period was labor between 1817 and 1826 helped to outbuildings, was erected in 1829 as a 11⁄2 story family. Tucker also rented enslaved people to a significant asset for Catherine “Kitty” Foster and her descendants. realize Thomas Jefferson’s design for the kitchen with an attic garret that was used as the University as needed. In 1828, Anthony During the postbellum period, the predominantly African American University of Virginia.” After it was installed, quarters for the enslaved. The enslaved cooks was rented out for five months performing neighborhood became known as Canada. The 21/8 acre parcel remained students objected to its acknowledgement of the contributions of and domestics who lived and worked at these labor for the University. In 1840, Isaac was in the Foster family until 1906. The “Shadowcatcher” memorial designed enslaved people from 1817 to 1865 as insufficient. Their awareness- buildings were integral to the University’s rented for a month and assisted a stonemason by landscape architects Cheryl Barton and Walter Hood commemorates raising efforts after 2007 paved the way for the birth of the community, providing meals and domestic service while building walls surrounding the the history of the site. An exhibit in the 1st floor atrium of the Nau President’s Commission on Slavery and the University in 2013. to the professors and their families. This building Academical Village. and Gibson Hall complex contains additional information and artifacts. has since been enlarged and was renamed “The Mews” in 1923. President‘s Commission on Slavery and the University UVA walktrail #14F REV#8 > REV2#12F_Layout 1 9/22/20 1:45 AM Page 2 ENSLAVED AFRICAN AMERICANS Pratt D rive 16 Thom s on Ro Rd N > ad o mb Alderman LIbrary Uni wc at the University of Virginia Ne UVA Chapel To 29N vers ity A ven ue / n Rt 2 d Roa 50B ick orm P Walking Tour McC University Cemetery Leake Drive 17 Hotel A e Driv Mew Rotunda ck s All nco 9B ey Pavilion I / Rt2 Ha Cemetery Road et St Pavilion III Pavilion II Emm McCormick Road Pavilion IV 15 Pavilion V ad The Lawn Alderman Ro Pavilion VI nge Hotel E 14 t Ra McC d Roa orm Eas ick Pavilion VIII Roa UVA Walking Tour McG ick d ad uffe Pavilion IX 13 orm y Dr S Ro ive b Rd Ol ick McC dR C orm com es erv Mc Pavilion X oir New ive Rd 12 l Dr McCormick Road pita Hotel F Hos Drive H ouse Tree 18 Gibbons House Cabell Hall ad Em Ro m et m diu St /R Jefferson Park Avenue Sta Jefferson Park Avenue t2 9B Wh ite he ad Ro Road ad Oakhurst Circle e Lane ue n Aven Wo ford Mon od row Monro Here tebe Str llo C eet Brando ircle oad an R B erm t 29 Ald / R nue Ave Valle ark nP y erso Road ad Ro Jeff m diu Sta Gooch House To I-64 > Dillard House 50' 200' 500 feet Flo 19 yd Dr ENSLAVED AFRICAN AMERICANS 12 The Crackerbox 14 Pavilion VI and Garden 16 University Cemetery 19 Gooch Dillard Grave Site at the University of Virginia  |   One of the few surviving outbuildings, the Pavilion VI was one place where William and In 2012, Archaeologists discovered 67 mostly The Gooch Dillard dormitory is located on Walking Tour “Cracker Box” is a two-story structure erected Isabella Gibbons, both enslaved by different unmarked grave shafts, which likely contain the what was originally part of Reuben Maury’s in 1826 behind Hotel F. Like the Mews, the professors, persevered to maintain family remains of enslaved African Americans. In 2014, 290-acre Piedmont plantation. With the This self-guided tour introduces Cracker Box was originally constructed as connections and educate themselves. the cemetery underwent renovation and exception of 1851, when UVA briefly took a detached kitchen with second story dwelling William was owned by Professor Howard in interpretive panels were installed, all without ownership of the property, Piedmont some of the people, places, and space. Hotelkeeper John Rose brought his Pavilion III and later worked as a butler for disturbing the graves. Although we do not know remained with the Maury family until UVA stories related to early African household, including 13 enslaved people and Professor McGuffey in Pavilion IX. Isabella who was buried here, we do know they were purchased it in 1947. As Maury’s plantation 3 free Black women, to Hotel F in 1829. was owned by Professor Smith in Pavilions V people with families, faith, community, and holdings grew, so did the number of enslaved American life at the University of A one-room addition was added to the north end, perhaps as additional and VI, where she worked as a domestic servant. Although their cultural traditions. Thus, in 2014 and 2017, the PCSU organized people he owned. In the decades between 1820 and 1860, Maury Virginia. Between 1817 and 1865 living space for the enslaved. marriage had no legal standing, William and Isabella preserved their memorial services that included evening vigils and libations led by owned between 25 and 62 enslaved individuals. Prior to construction union and raised their children while held in bondage. The strong renowned Reverend Almeta Ingram-Miller. of this dormitory complex in 1982, Maury descendant Alice H. Clark the University relied on the labor Enslaved men James Munroe and Edmund, along with the other opposition of white Virginians also severely limited access to education recalled the location of a cemetery containing the remains of people owned by Rose, likely served one of two capacities: as hotel of enslaved African Americans, for the enslaved. William learned to read by carefully observing and enslaved people who lived and worked there. Archaeologists then servants preparing, serving, and cleaning up student meals; or as listening to the white students around him. Their daughter Bella 17 Skipwith Hall conducted limited testing in the area. Although only nine graves  whose presence was undeniably dormitory servants providing services to students and cleaning their recalled that she could not have learned to read and write, “unless were identified, it is believed that the cemetery could be larger. rooms. The Roses left the University in 1834 and opened a boarding central to the building and my mother taught me secretly.” In 2019, Student Council, working with the President’s Commission, house for students on Main Street. It is likely that the people they Peyton Skipwith, enslaved by Board of Visitors installed interpretive panels documenting this history. functioning of the University of held in bondage continued to serve students and the Roses at their member John Hartwell Cocke of Fluvanna boarding house establishment. Virginia. This walking tour is 15 Memorial to Enslaved Laborers County, was a master mason who quarried for use in construction at UVA. The site an initiative of the President’s Photography of this building is at the location of the University 13 East Lawn Basement Rooms  Front Commission on Slavery and the The Memorial to Enslaved Laborers honors the quarry where he labored. While rented to UVA, cover Minor, Southall and Venable family photographs, 1860–1900, Accession #10100-d, lives, labor, resilience, and resistance of 4,000 Peyton Skipwith extracted rock and cut stone Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville VA. University, a group committed to enslaved people who lived and worked at for buildings, including the Anatomical Theater. 1 Bricks from the Anatomical Theater, Historical Collections & Servoces. Claude Moore Health The basement rooms had many different Sciences Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA. acknowledging and memorializing UVA between 1817 and 1865. First proposed He literally carved the foundations of the Academical Village. Skipwith, 2 UVA Magazine uses. Some were living quarters for enslaved uvamagazine.org/articles/unearthing_slavery_at_the_university_of_virginia by students in 2010, the idea for a memorial as part of a Liberian colonization scheme, was emancipated in 1833 the lives and legacies of enslaved people. Pavilion occupants occasionally 3 Holsinger Studio Collection, c. 2890–1938, Accession #9862, Special Collections, University garnered widespread support from students, and deported by Cocke as a condition of being freed. The building, with of Virginia Library, Charlottesville VA. annexed these rooms by breaking through 4 Details: E. Sachse, Engraver. View of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville & Monticello, laborers at UVA. faculty, staff, alumni, and the local community thirty Skipwith descendants attending, was dedicated in summer 2017. common walls, which allowed a direct taken from Lewis Mountain, 1856. Casimir Bohn, Publisher, Richmond, Virginia. Broadside as the President's Commission on Slavery and 1856. B64. Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville VA. passageway from the basement to the inside 5 ‘East Range.’ [It is actually West Range] RG-30/1/10.011. UVA Prints 01667. University of Virginia the University brought that initial vision to reality. of the pavilion. Many of these rooms show Visual History Collection. University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville VA. To learn more visit 18 Gibbons House 6 Anne Chesnut  evidence of improvement to make them Situated within the UNESCO World Heritage Site space northeast of 7 Sanjay Suchak more habitable, including whitewashed walls and plaster ceilings. the Rotunda, the memorial sits in the midst of what were originally 8 Image courtesy of Jefferson’s University - The Early Life, juel.iath.virginia.edu slavery.virginia.edu Despite those improvements, most of the rooms were barely habitable fields cultivated by enslaved people. The memorial’s design and location 9 Bottom: Image courtesy of Jefferson’s University - The Early Life, juel.iath.virginia.edu 11 Rivanna Archaeological Services, LLC (2005) In 2015, “Gibbons House” dormitory was without floors, windows, ventilation, or fireplaces. were deeply informed by a process of engagement with students, Back dedicated and named after William and Isabella faculty, staff, and the local community. Howeler + Yoon Architects the cover Holsinger Studio Collection, c. 2890–1938, Accession #9862, Special Collections, University These rooms were sometimes rented out to businessmen such as Gibbons, who were both enslaved at UVA. Later of Virginia Library, Charlottesville VA. team who designed the memorial, which was completed in 2020. 12,13 Sanjay Suchak Jack Kennedy, a member of Charlottesville’s small free Black community, that same year, Gibbons family descendants were 14 Rivanna Archaeological Services, LLC (2014) who applied to use one as a barber’s shop for the accommodation of As people walk along the memorial’s path, the interior granite wall honored with a reception at the dormitory. Isabella 15 Sanjay Suchak 16 Dan Addison the students. The faculty approved because they hoped the students rises to a height of eight feet. This wall bears memory marks—the and William Gibbons became esteemed leaders 17, 18 Sanjay Suchak would have fewer reasons to go to town. In another room, enslaved inscriptions of the known and unknown names of the estimated 4,000 in the African American community locally after 19 Kirt von Daacke laborers constructed a large cistern, which was once a vital part of persons who worked on grounds. Current research has uncovered the general emancipation in 1865—William the University’s water supply and fire protection system. The cistern the names of nearly 600 enslaved persons. Running parallel to the wall served as a minister and Isabella taught in the Freedmen’s School. The was connected to pipes and trenches built by enslaved people. Two of names, a smaller ring of granite incorporates a bench for individuals President’s Commission on Slavery and the University (PCSU) installed free Black men, Thomas Farrar and his partner, Mr. Battles, maintained to rest and reflect. The smaller ring also hosts a water-table with exhibits honoring their accomplishments in an alcove on the first floor the water system for decades. a timeline of the history of slavery at UVA etched into the stone. of the dorm and outside along the main walkway to Central Grounds. President's President‘s Commission on Commission on Slavery Slaveryand andthethe University University To Historic Resources Committee 8/10/21 From: Dede Smith and Kay Slaughter RE: Information on walking maps We two represented the Walking Tour Subcommittee in order to meet with designer Anne Chesnut to discuss ideas for a walking map and to seek design and print estimates. To remind HRC and staff, we had reviewed the previous walking map, presented ideas at the last two meetings for discussion, and got the go-ahead to explore retaining a designer to help figure out an effective, efficient, and attractive walking map. (See two examples in materials.) Anne Chesnut, designer of Jefferson School’s Starr Hill/Union Ridge tour map as well as a UVA tour map, using a similar design. A City walking map in a similar style would fit in. Our idea has been to divide the Downtown Area into three locations: 1) Court Square including Court House, McKee Block, and Slave Auction Block; 2) Downtown Business and Commercial (Early History like Isaacs family; Sally Hemings; oldest building; Mall, Water Street, Vinegar Hill, some side streets for e.g., Elks Club); and 3) Segregation and Civil Rights Eras (Old Library, New Library/former PO & Court House; McGuffey School, formerly segregated now art coop; City Park, VH area, Lane HS). The brochure would be similar to UVA/Starr Hill: 18 x 20 paper that folds to 4 x 9 with similar paper. This map contains 4 panels for front and back cover, leaving 10 panels for three tours. We would have one tour on one side and two tours on the other (determined based on requirements of each tour). The introduction would be at the beginning, left to right across panels (see Starr Hill map.). For example, the Downtown map might be on the first side and then when you turn over, there would be a 2nd introduction to Court Square and Segregation/Civil Rights and then a more detailed map and listing of sites. We would use several photos at least for the 2 covers Cost: For design purposes, Anne’s estimate is $2900-4900, depending on time allocation, plus cost for use of photos. The actual cost would be based on her actual hourly time. The size paper --–18 x 20--is standard. Anne got bids from two printers to estimate cost. General specs and Estimates Size: 18x20; folds to 4x9, map fold Stock: 80# Chorus Art Silk Text, 80# Endurance Silk Text Ink: 4/4 Design: Customer to provide, press-ready files. Bindery: Folding Quote 1: Charlottesville Downtown Walking Map Brochure 7500 10,000 12,500 2,826.00 $3,439.00 $4,106.00 Quote 2: Charlottesville Downtown Walking Map Brochure 7500 10,000 12,500 $ 2,305.00 $ 2,662.00 $ 3,060.00 Total cost for the project, including would be approximately $6,000 to $8,000. We hope that the HRC will approve this estimate so that we may move ahead. Vinegar Hill Park signage and marker (per July 2016 Laura Knott plan) For Discussion—July 26, 2021 C. Panel on light pole C. Panel on light pole B. Interpretative marker D. New sign A. Panels on light pole A. Panels on light pole Vinegar Hill Park signage and marker (per July 2016 Laura Knott plan) For Discussion—July 26, 2021 A. Panels on light pole B. Interpretative marker A. Panels on light pole D. New sign Vinegar Hill Park—From Water Street Similar to existing Downtown Mall Vinegar Hill Park Vinegar Hill Park signage and marker (per July 2016 Laura Knott plan) For Discussion—July 26, 2021 C. Panel on light pole C. Panel on light pole Vinegar Hill Park—Looking east. Vinegar Hill Park Similar to existing For Discussion—July 26, 2021 For Discussion—July 26, 2021 For Discussion—July 26, 2021 City of Charlottesville Historic Resources Committee RULES OF PROCEDURE Adopted by the Charlottesville Historic Resources Committee July 12, 2010 Revised August 14, 2017 (Note: The Public Comment at Meetings policy was adopted at the January 17, 2020 meeting; however, it has not yet been formally incorporated into the Rules of Procedure.) 1. Officers and Membership A. Chair or Co-Chairs. At its annual meeting, the Committee shall elect a Chair or two Co-Chairs. The Chair or either of the Co-Chairs, by mutual consent, shall preside at the meeting and at all other meetings during the year for which elected. B. Vice-Chair. At its annual meeting, the Committee may elect a Vice-Chair, in lieu of a Co-Chair, who shall preside at meetings in the absence of the Chair, and shall discharge the duties of the Chair during their absence or disability. C. Secretary-Treasurer. The current Charlottesville Historic Preservation Planner or their representative shall serve as Secretary-Treasurer, and shall record the proceedings of the meetings. The Secretary-Treasurer shall keep the Committee apprised of budget appropriations for the Committee, expenditures, and funding needs. D. Term of Office. The Chair and Co-Chair or Vice-Chair shall be elected for one-year terms; but all may be re-elected for one or more additional terms. E. Absence of Chair and Co-Chair or Vice-Chair. If the Chair and Co-Chair or Vice-Chair are absent from any meeting, a present member shall be chosen to act as Chair for that meeting. F. Leaves of Absence. Upon the request of a member, the Committee may vote to allow that member to take a leave of absence from membership for no more than six months. No more than two voting members may be on leave of absence at the same time. For purposes of establishing a quorum, the voting membership of the committee shall be reduced by the number of members on leave of absence at the time the meeting is held. G. Ex-Officio Members. The Committee may designate ex-officio members. Ex- officio members shall be voting members. H. Advisory or Ad-hoc Members. The Committee may designate members as “Advisory” or “Ad-hoc” members for a particular project. Advisory or Ad-hoc members may participate in Committee discussions and Committee work, but they shall not be voting members and their attendance at a meeting shall not be counted towards that number required to constitute a quorum. Charlottesville Historic Resources Committee Rules of Procedure (Aug 2017) 1 I. Number of Members. Voting members of the Historic Resources Committee shall be appointed by City Council and shall be limited to twelve. J. Terms. Members shall serve three-year staggered terms with 1/3 of the membership appointed each year. Members have no term limits, but must reapply and be reappointed by City Council every three years. K. Committee Heads. At its annual meeting the Committee shall decide upon Committee Heads from its voting members, in order to accomplish its Annual Plan work program. L. New members. When the number of voting members falls below ten members, the Committee shall formally request that City Council appoint new members. The Committee may recommend to City Council persons from the community with qualifications or interests pertaining to preservation or history. The Committee openings shall be made public on the City’s web site. Applicants shall submit application forms to the City Clerk. 2. Meetings A. Annual Meeting. The first meeting in January of each year shall be known as the annual meeting. At the annual meeting, the Committee shall establish the day, time, and place for regular meetings of the Committee for that year, and shall elect the Chair, Co-Chair or Vice-Chair. B. Annual Plan. No later than the first meeting in January of each year the Committee shall vote upon and establish an Annual Plan or work program for that year, and shall establish Committee Heads. C. Regular Meetings. The Committee shall meet in regular session at the time and place and on the day or days established for regular meetings. The Committee may subsequently establish a different day, time, or place to conduct its regular meetings by passing a resolution to that effect. If the Chair or Co-Chair finds and declares that weather or other conditions are such that it is hazardous for Committee members to attend a regular meeting, the meeting shall be continued to the next regular meeting date. This finding shall be communicated to the members of the Committee and the Committee’s web site as promptly as possible. D. Attendance. Two unreported absences from regular meetings shall be considered grounds for dismissal from the Committee. 3. Order of Business A. Establishment of Agenda. The agenda for each regular meeting shall be Charlottesville Historic Resources Committee Rules of Procedure (Aug 2017) 2 established by staff. At the beginning of each meeting the Committee may make changes to the agenda. B. Organization of the Agenda. The agenda of each regular meeting shall be organized in substantially the following order, subject to change at the request of the Chair and with the consensus of the other members of the Committee: (1) Call to order and agenda changes (2) Approval of minutes (3) Education & Public Meetings (4) Public Commemoration (5) Publications (6) Special Projects (7) Other business (8) Goals for Next meeting (9) Adjourn C. Deferrals. The Committee may defer any matter at the request of a member of the Committee, or staff. The request may be either oral or in writing, and may be made at any time prior to the vote on the matter. The person making the request shall state the reasons therefor. A motion to defer shall either specify the date to which the matter is deferred or defer the matter indefinitely. 4. Quorum Half of the voting members shall constitute a quorum. If there are an odd number of voting members, a quorum shall be half the members and one. If, during a meeting, less than a quorum remain present, no action can be taken except to adjourn the meeting. 5. Voting Procedures A. Approval of Motion by Majority. Each decision of the Committee shall be made by approval of a majority of the members present and voting on a motion properly made by a member and properly seconded by another member. Any motion that is not seconded shall not be further considered. B. Manner of Vote. The vote on a motion shall be by voice vote, provided that a roll call vote on such a motion shall be required if requested by a member of the Committee. For each roll call vote, staff shall record the name of each member voting and how the member voted on the motion. For each voice vote, staff shall record the result of the vote. C. Tie Vote. A tie vote shall defeat the motion voted upon. Charlottesville Historic Resources Committee Rules of Procedure (Aug 2017) 3 D. Abstention. If any member abstains from voting on any motion, they shall state their abstention. The abstention shall be announced by the Chairman and recorded by staff. E. Motion to Amend. A motion to amend a motion before the Committee shall be discussed and voted by the Committee before any vote is taken on the original motion unless the motion to amend is accepted by both the members making and seconding the original motion. If the motion to amend is approved, the amended motion is then before the Committee for its consideration. If the motion to amend is not approved, the original motion is again before the Committee for its consideration. 6. Amendment of Rules of Procedure These Rules of Procedure may be amended by a majority vote of the Committee at the next regular meeting following a regular meeting at which notice of the motion to amend is given. 7. Rules of Procedure not Covered by These Rules of Procedure Any rules of procedure not covered by these Rules of Procedure shall be governed by the current Robert’s Rules of Order. ***** Public Comment at Meetings At the beginning of each meeting, not more than 10 minutes will be allowed for the introduction of any guests and public comments. Speakers may speak for a maximum of two-minutes and shall begin by identifying their name and address. The intent is to allow public input; not initiate a dialogue or debate with the committee. Subsequent to this meeting segment, by majority approval the HRC may amend the agenda to allow further discussion; however the motion should also establish a time limit for that discussion. Additionally, prior to adjourning--and applying conditions above--the HRC may allow a period not to exceed five minutes for public comment. (January 17, 2020) Charlottesville Historic Resources Committee Rules of Procedure (Aug 2017) 4 Proposed amendments to HRC Operating Procedures Membership Current: 1. G. Ex-Officio Members. The Committee may designate ex-officio members. Ex-officio members shall be voting members. Amended: 1.G. Ex-Officio Members. The Historic Preservation and Design Planner for the City of Charlottesville is a non-voting ex-officio member of the committee. City Council may designate one non-voting ex-officio member who is a member of City Council. The Committee may designate other ex-officio members, who may be designated as voting or non-voting members. A maximum of 2 voting ex-officio members may be designated by the Committee. Current: 1. I. Number of Members. Voting members of the Historic Resources Committee shall be appointed by City Council and shall be limited to twelve. Amended: 1. I. Regular Members. Regular members of the Historic Resources Committee shall be appointed by City Council and shall be limited to twelve. Regular members shall be voting members. Public Comment Current: None Amended: (add) in section 3.B. insert "Public Comment" between existing items (1) and (2) (add) 2. E. Public Comment at Meetings At the beginning of each meeting, not more than 10 minutes will be allowed for the introduction of any guests and public comments. Speakers may speak for a maximum of two-minutes and shall begin by identifying their name and address. The intent is to allow public input; not initiate a dialogue or debate with the committee. Subsequent to this meeting segment, by majority approval the HRC may amend the agenda to allow further discussion; however the motion should also establish a time limit for that discussion. Additionally, prior to adjourning--and applying conditions above--the HRC may allow a period not to exceed five minutes for public comment. HONORING Ellen Wagner WHEREAS, Ellen Wagner was appointed in June 2013 by City Council to the serve on the Historic Resources Committee and continued to serve through July 2021; and WHEREAS, the Historic Resources Committee was established by City Council to advocate for historic preservation; to promote an appreciation of local historic resources, both tangible and intangible; and to encourage and coordinate, with appropriate municipal agencies, civic organizations, institutions and individual scholars, the documentation and interpretation of local history; and WHEREAS, during Ellen’s eight years of service, the Historic Resources Committee accomplished its charge through projects that include the repair of the Fairfax Taylor headstone and rededication of the gravesite, facilitation of the initiative to restore and interpret the Daughters of Zion Cemetery, rededication ceremonies for the Maplewood and Oakwood cemeteries, establishment of the Vinegar Hill Park and the installation of a temporary exhibit expressing the history of Vinegar Hill, development of the Downtown Walking Tour Map, and providing funding and support for the historic survey of the 10th and Page Neighborhood and for the examination of the unmarked graves of enslaved persons at Pen Park; and, in many other ways, successfully promoted the Committee’s educational and advocacy mission; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the City of Charlottesville’s Historic Resources Committee thanks Ellen Wagner for her service to the City and its citizens, all of whom have benefited from her dedication and service. ____________________________________ Chair of the Historic Resources Committee August 13, 2021 Draft July 28, 2021