ARLINGTON, VA., September 28, 2026: Arlington Public Library, in partnership with the Arlington Historical Society and the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, will host the Stumbling Stone dedication ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 11 a.m., to honor the lives of former enslaved African Americans Bess (born ca. 1735) and Nann (born ca. 1747), at the intersection of N. Quincy Street and 10th Street North. Nann and Bess were once enslaved by the Wheeler and Triplett families in the 18th century, living and working on the land where the Central Library now is located.
Featured speakers include Diane Kresh (Director of Arlington Public Library), Tim Aiken (Representative of Memorializing the Enslaved Arlington), Holly Karapetkova (former Arlington Poet Laureate) and Dr. Scott Taylor (President of the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington).
Later this fall, Arlington Public Library’s Charlie Clark Center for Local History will host "Black History Revealed" a day of interactive African American genealogy workshops, free and open to the public as part of the Library’s Arlington 250 programming. On Nov. 21 from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., participate in breakout sessions led by four esteemed speakers and nationally recognized genealogists:
- Andre Kearns, author, speaker and Founder and CEO of Black Ancestries
- Lisa Fanning, board member of the Directors of the National Genealogical Society and expert in African American genealogy and genetic genealogy
- Tyrone Goodwyn, Vice President of the North Carolina Genealogy Society and member of the National Genealogical Society
- Luke Alexander, genealogist and community historian, focusing on African American and Indigenous heritage in the Carolinas
Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop, tablet or smartphone device for the afternoon sessions, along with any family names, dates, locations, documents or research questions they would like to explore.
Arlington Public Library offers access to various genealogy tools, including Ancestry Library Edition and HeritageQuest, to trace family and community histories. Visitors can also explore newspaper archives featuring The Washington Post, Alexandria Gazette, and Evening Star. Additionally, Arlington Public Library's Genealogy Research Guide provides curated resources, research tips, and recommended sources.
This African American genealogy workshop is made possible by a generous grant from Virginia Humanities and is a collaborative effort among Arlington Public Library, the Charlie Clark Center for Local History and the Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington. The Friends of the Arlington Public Library support all of the library’s programming.
About Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington:
Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington, a joint initiative from the Arlington Historical Society and the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, is an ongoing local history project dedicated to uncovering the lives and legacies of the individuals once enslaved in Arlington County, Virginia, from 1699 to 1865.
Now in its third year, Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington has installed 19 memorial bronze plaques on sidewalks across the county, identifying 1,050 former slaves by name. The bronze plaques commemorate the last known locations where enslaved persons once lived or worked. These bronze plaques, called “stumbling stones,” are made by students at Arlington Tech High School. When the information is known, these stumbling stones are engraved with the enslaved person’s first and last names, the date of birth and the date of death.
Arlington, Virginia is the first southern community in the United States to memorialize enslaved individuals in this way. Inspired by the German Stolpersteine project to honor victims of the Holocaust, Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington’s “stumbling stones” commemorate the African American journey from slavery to freedom in Arlington County.
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Arlington Public Library has partnered with community organizations for the exhibition “From Barriers to Ballots—The Fight for Equal Voting Rights in Virginia,” to tell the stories of activists in Arlington and Northern Virginia who fought for voting rights.
At six locations in Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax, visitors can discover the stories of Annie E. Harper who hailed from the historic Black community of Gum Springs, VA; Hall’s Hill (now High View Park) activist Portia A. Haskins; and former Green Valley resident and community organizer John Robinson. Their tireless work impacted local communities in Northern Virginia and had vast implications for voting rights nationally, resulting in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on March 24, 1966, that ended the Jim Crow era poll tax in Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas.
The exhibitions will be on view during regular opening hours from Aug. 1 to Nov. 4, 2025, at Bozman Government Center, Arlington Central Library, Arlington Historical Museum, Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, Sherwood Regional Library (Aug. 1-31), and City of Fairfax Regional Library (Sept. 1-Nov. 4).
Exhibition partners include the Arlington Historical Society, the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, the League of Women Voters of Arlington and Alexandria City and the NAACP Arlington Branch.
Funding for “From Barriers to Ballots” has generously been provided by the Friends of the Arlington Public Library (FOAL).
Content for this exhibition has been provided by the Charlie Clark Center for Local History (CCCLH) and the following media contributors: Arlington County Department of Voter Registration and Elections; Bethlehem Baptist Church, Gum Springs, Virginia; City of Fairfax Regional Library, Fairfax County Public Library; Library of Congress; Library of Virginia; Norman Rockwell Museum and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art.
Join the library and community partners at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 6, at Central Library for the opening reception of the exhibition to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Find more events featuring voting rights history.
Media Contacts
Anneliesa Alprin
Communications Manager
aalprin@arlingtonva.us
703-228-6329 (o) / 703-843-8658 (c)
Henrik Sundqvist
Communications Officer
nsundqvist@arlingtonva.us
703-228-0590 (o) / 571-970-8608 (c)
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2021
Penguin Random House Library Award for Innovation
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2012
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