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local history news

Exploring the Story of Desegregation in Arlington Public Schools

Published: February 2, 2017

"Project DAPS"

The richly documented story of public school desegregation in Virginia will be made accessible online by the County that led the way.

On Saturday, Feb. 25, in conjunction with the 2017 Feel the Heritage Festival, Arlington Public Library launches Projectdaps.org, a unique online exhibition and searchable database – built from thousands of photos, documents and recordings – surrounding the legal and moral battles that culminated with four courageous African American students taking their seats on Feb. 2, 1959 at Arlington’s Stratford Junior High School.

black and white photograph of black students entering Stratford Junior High in 1959

Ronald Deskins, Michael Jones, Lance Newman, and Gloria Thompson walked into Stratford Junior High School on February 2, 1959. Center for Local History, Arlington Public Library

 

“Project DAPS” (Desegregation of Arlington Public Schools) is culled from the holdings of the Library’s Community Archives in the Center for Local History (CLH) at Central Library.

The project explores the historic narrative starting with early integration efforts amid Arlington’s rapid growth of the 1940s. Many items were recently digitized for the first time.

In 2016, the Stratford school property was declared a local historic district. Library Director Diane Kresh says the timing was perfect for creating a “complementary and comprehensive digital collection to tell the story of this signal milestone in our rich community history.”

Because there are always more layers of history to find and examine, the CLH continually seeks community donations and oral histories, particularly as they relate to desegregation following the historic day at Stratford. To contribute, contact the CLH at 703-228-5966 or localhistory@arlingtonva.us.

This digital access project was completed using new FY2017 funding in the Department of Libraries budget dedicated to increasing public access to government records and archival materials.

The Center for Local History at Arlington Public Library is committed to collecting, preserving, and sharing the history of Arlington County. 

 

February 2, 2017 by Web Editor Filed Under: Center for Local History, News Tagged With: local history news

The Washington Home of the Philippine Suffrage Movement

Published: September 9, 2016

Highlighting Leaders of the Philippine Suffrage Movement and their Ties to Washington DC

On exhibit at Central Library, September 2016.

Philippine Suffrage

 

The exhibit features 6 banners, and draws from a wealth of materials that have been collected and discovered the last three years as part of an ongoing research project called the Philippines on the Potomac (POPDC) project.

The exhibit has previously been seen at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC, and the City of Fairfax Library.

 

 

September 9, 2016 by Web Editor Filed Under: News Tagged With: local history news

Public Shoe Store Donates Records to Center for Local History

Published: February 29, 2016

Farewell to an Arlington Landmark, 1938-2016

Public Shoe Store

The Public Shoe Store in Clarendon, one of the oldest long-term businesses in Arlington, closed its doors on February 27.

S. H. “Doc” Friedman, the store’s owner and a podiatrist by training, has finally decided to retire after 78 years in the business [Arlnow.com]. Specializing in comfort shoes and custom fitting, it is one of the rare specialty stores of its kind left in the area and will certainly be missed by its many long-time customers.

Letter to 'Doc" Friedman from a loyal customer

Letter to ‘Doc” Friedman from a loyal customer (click to enlarge)

“Doc” Friedman is donating the records of the Public Shoe Store, as well as the sign from the front of the store, to the Center for Local History at the Arlington Public Library.

In doing so, he is making sure that the Public Shoe Store’s place in the history of the community is preserved.

 

Did you know that the Center for Local History collects historical business records as well as the records of Arlington organizations?

These records help tell the story of the development of the community and provide unique testimony to the achievements of your business or organization. Placing these records in an archival repository helps assure that they will be preserved and become part of the community’s collective memory.

 

 

If you have business or organizational records you would like to donate, please contact the Center for Local History at 703-228-5966, or email localhistory@arlingtonva.us.

 

February 29, 2016 by Web Editor Filed Under: News Tagged With: local history news

Celebrate Black History: Share the Story of Nauck/Green Valley

Published: February 5, 2016

Explore Arlington’s Nauck in person. And if you can, help share the rich heritage digitally.

The community—bordered by Army-Navy County Club, Four Mile Run, South Walter Reed Drive and South 16th Road—features African American roots that predate the Civil War. Records from the 184os show that free blacks like Levi and Sarah Ann Jones bought land, built homes and sometimes found neighbors by selling excess portions of their lots.

A surge of growth came with the start of the 20th century, when an influx of former slaves arrived as the federal government shuttered its nearby Freedman’s Village.

Faced with encroaching segregation, Nauck/Green Valley residents became self-sustaining as entrepreneurs, educators, religious leaders, health workers and other professionals established an array of resilient neighborhood institutions.

Several survive to this day.

Nauck Green Vallery Heritage Project Banner

Through generous loans and donations by residents, descendants and their institutions, the official Nauck/Green Valley Heritage Project continues to grow as an online archive dedicated to capturing the community’s rich history and cultural legacy.

The archive is a partnership of Arlington Public Library’s Center for Local History, the Nauck Civic Association, Arlington County’s Neighborhood Services and Drew Model Elementary School.

The goal is to find and make available digitally those seemingly lost chapters—and images—that can add to one of Arlington’s most inspiring stories.

Spread the word about Nauck/Green Valley.

Preservationists are standing by: online donation form / email / 703-228-5966.

February 5, 2016 by Web Editor Filed Under: Center for Local History, eCollection Tagged With: local history news

Celebrate Black History: Hall's Hill +150

Published: February 1, 2016

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the notable Hall’s Hill/High View Park neighborhood in north Arlington.

Bazil Hall home, 1700 N. George Mason Dr., c. 1866

Bazil Hall home, 1700 N. George Mason Dr., c. 1866

The name Hall’s Hill comes from Bazil Hall, an Alexandria (now Arlington) County farm owner in antebellum Northern Virginia.  Following the difficult Civil War years, Hall gradually broke up and sold his estate, including its noted rise, in small parcels to freed slaves, generally for $10-15 per acre.

Hall, according to a 1969 interview with Robert Nickerson, urged blacks to buy as much land as they could, saying a time would come when they would no longer be allowed to acquire such property. In Nickerson’s words: “[H]e told the truth.”  In the 1890s, before enforced segregation kicked in, the lots were also advertised in the Washington Bee, the region’s black newspaper.

In the early days of the Hall’s Hill community, most residents had gardens and often raised chickens and hogs. In oral histories, they fondly described a life built around church, community and social activities. Block parties, sledding and the neighborhood baseball team, known as the Virginia White Sox, were just some of the pastimes.

“The Hill” is remembered as a place where you knew everyone and everyone knew you, and children understood that if they misbehaved in front of neighbors, their parents would soon hear of it.  A close-knit community, the people of Hall’s Hill looked out for one another.

Mount Salvation Baptist Church

Mount Salvation Baptist Church

Bounded by Lee Highway (north), Glebe Road (east), North 17th Street (south) and George Mason Drive (west),  residents established many of their own stores, schools and houses of worship.  The churches in particular remain an ongoing source for social, cultural and religious enrichment.

Until the 1950s the neighborhood was separated from the adjacent white community by an 8-foot-high fence that ran between the backyards of blacks and whites.  Only a small part of the fence remains today. It can be seen from N. 17th Street.

Members of the community played  significant roles in the national and local Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, working to desegregate public schools, housing, theaters, hospitals, libraries and eating facilities.

Calloway Methodist Church

Calloway Methodist Church

Arlington County officially changed the neighborhood’s name to High View Park in 1965. However, many long-time residents still prefer to call the area by its original name.

Today an aging population and changing demographics place the community on the brink of significant change, but as long as the stories of residents are collected, preserved, and celebrated, its history and significant contributions will be not be lost.

From an oral history with Welbe “Peggy” Earline Deskins done in 2003:

“I think it’s always important to… remember your roots and to remember where you started from… the why and how of everything.  I think that helps in your later life and it certainly helps other people as they’re coming along.

If you lose it all, [there] comes the time when there’s a whole race who just knows nothing…. You might have to even start out from the beginning, but when you do, if you have some references, then you know what to start with.

I think you should always… keep track of history… people were different in that time.  People helped each other a lot more.  People were a lot more open with each other, you know.  I mean you could run next door and get a cup of sugar you know…  it was just different.  And those are the kinds of things I think that help people to keep going and to prosper.”

February 1, 2016 by Web Editor Filed Under: News Tagged With: local history news

Grant Helps Preserve Memories of “Little Saigon”

Published: January 7, 2016

The rich cultural history of Arlington’s “Little Saigon” community will be told through a new guide produced with a $9,000 grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

January 7, 2016 by Web Editor Filed Under: News Tagged With: local history news

Roadmap for Preserving, Sharing Arlington’s Past

Published: December 16, 2015

The County’s History Task Force—charged with creating a vision capturing, preserving and sharing online Arlington’s history – has made its final recommendations to the County Manager.

December 16, 2015 by Web Editor Filed Under: News Tagged With: local history news

Remembering Arlington History Preservationist Sara Collins

Published: November 20, 2015

Delegate Alfonso Lopez joined Library Director Diane Kresh on Nov. 20 to honor former County history preservationist Sara Collins.

Sara Collins Resolution

Collins died last year after a remarkable career with the Library and what is now the Center for Local History at Central.

Her work was remembered this year with a resolution in the General Assembly.

Delegate Lopez made his presentation at the final meeting of the County’s History Task Force.

The group of County staff and residents is working on a 5-year plan for the future preservation and study of Arlington historic documents and records, both official and those generated by private citizens, businesses and organizations.

A final task force report will be presented to the County Board next month.

November 20, 2015 by Web Editor Filed Under: News Tagged With: local history news

9/11: What Children Felt

Published: September 9, 2015

Note: We shared the basic contents of this post last year at this time. The reader response was so strong that we present it again. And we never forget.

Fourteen years ago, young people from across the United States shared their gratitude, fear, patriotism and sorrow with the police and firefighters of Arlington, Va.

???????????????????????????????Their unsolicited drawings and letters–preserved in the collections of Arlington Public Library’s Center for Local History–now show inevitable signs of age. Some of the young artists and writers no doubt have children of their own.

Sept. 11 letter

But the emotions of those grade schoolers and teens remain as fresh and powerful as the day they were put on paper and mailed from places like Renton, Wash., Toledo, Ohio, Clarksdale, Miss. and more locally Ashburn and the District.

The messages were welcomed and then saved. To preserve is to remember.

There are many ways to learn more and take part in the commemoration of Sept. 11, 2001 in Arlington:

  • Arlington Remembers Sept. 11
  • Read or listen to the Center for Local History’s oral histories from first responders and others
  • Browse a collection of online resources
  • Watch the video interview by Library Director Diane Kresh with Pat Creed, co-author, “Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11“
  • Visit the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

 

September 9, 2015 by Web Editor Filed Under: News Tagged With: local history news

Remembering Arlington’s Freedman’s Village

Published: September 3, 2015

A new bridge to Arlington’s past

drawing of Freedmans Village BridgeOn Sept. 10, 2015, Arlington officials will formally dedicate “Freedmans Village Bridge,” the replacement overpass for Washington Boulevard at Columbia Pike.

The naming honor for the 19th century Arlington community of former slaves was approved by the state after a 2008 request from the County Board. Washington Boulevard is officially a state route.

freedmans village

The new bridge incorporates medallion images of the village, which was established as a model community by federal military officials on the captured property of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Custis-Lee estate in 1863. The village, which included housing, schools, a hospital and vocational facilities, was intended to be a temporary stopping point for the former slaves to establish themselves before moving on. Yet the community lasted and even thrived until 1900 when, after decades of trying, the government closed the village, persuading residents to accept payment to leave. Many found homes in other Arlington neighborhoods such as Hall’s Hill and Nauck.

Arlington TV spoke with Dr. Talmadge Williams in 2009 to explore the history and legacy of Freedman’s Village. Williams, an Arlington historian, educator and civil rights leader, died last year.

Although “Freedman’s Village” is now commonly spelled with the apostrophe, County preservation staff recommended that the bridge name not include the punctuation as a more accurate rendition of the name from when the community existed.

More than 28,000 residents of Freedman’s Village are buried in Section 27 of Arlington National Cemetery.

 

September 3, 2015 by Web Editor Filed Under: Center for Local History, News Tagged With: local history news

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