The Virginia town’s first Black Family Reunion sought photos and artifacts to expand the library’s collections and fill in the gaps of local African American history.
Alexandria is famous for the conspicuous display of its history. Tourists marvel at the colonial homes in Old Town, and some residents still worship in the church once attended by George Washington and Robert E. Lee.It was less than 30 years ago that state and local officials recognized that a gas station had been built over a large burial site for Black Americans fleeing from enslavement during the Civil War.
The library’s special collections division is a trove of arcana on the history of Alexandria and Virginia, with blueprints, manuscript collections and more than 50,000 photographs. After consulting with a former library board member, Dawson launched an initiative to expand those collections with an appeal to the city’s residents and their descendants for images and documents telling the story of the Black community.“We are known as a historic town.
The location itself — in front of the Kate Waller Barrett branch library — was symbolic of Alexandria’s uneasy stance toward local Black history. In 1939 the library was the site of one of the country’s to protest segregation. For decades afterward, it was avoided by many Black residents. Some of the older donors of photographs and documents came to the building for the first time in recent weeks.“Some of them didn’t know their way here,” said Bah, adding that she entreated them to participate despite their mistrust. “I basically told them, ‘It’s time.’”
Among those who showed up Saturday was Beatrice Cross Taylor, 87, a lifelong Alexandria resident who said she is descended from some of those buried in the long-neglected
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