|
|
|
| Tue, Dec. 01 - - Mobile - RSS | |
|
|
|
This sketch shows an overseer doing his job on a Spotsylvania plantation.The black population in Fredericksburg and Stafford and
Spotsylvania counties continued to grow until the Civil War. Here’s a snapshot from 1783, when Spotsylvania had more blacks than whites (5,933 to 5,171).
WEB EXTRA: Slide show highlights local folks involved in fight for civil rights. Time line: Originally published in The Free Lance-Star on July 18, 1999. |
• Gabriel Prosser, inspired by the Bible
|
A FEW ATTRACTED national attention, but most of them weren’t exactly household names in the Fredericksburg area—much less beyond. But many of the local people profiled on these pages in honor of Black History Month had something in common. They dreamed of a better life, at a time in our nation’s past when dreams were about all they had. They stood out, not only because they might have been the first to do or be something, but also because of their efforts. They were part of “Our History.” Many of their stories have been told before, but this may be the first time they’re compiled in such a way. They serve as a reminder that famous figures, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, George Washington Carver and Shirley Chisholm, aren’t the only ones who deserve memorializing. The local list is not complete, by any means. It is merely a sampling of those who made a difference over time, from the 18th century to the early days of the civil–rights movement. All the subjects are dead, except Mildred Loving. She and her late husband, Richard, fought to have the Supreme Court overturn the law prohibiting interracial marriage in 1967. Stories about the Lovings were published in Life magazine, but the actions and deeds of many others went unnoticed. In past centuries, news accounts about men of color were few and far between; those about women were even rarer. But thanks to people such as Fredericksburg historian Ruth Coder Fitzgerald, who wrote a book about her findings, readers can remember those who came before and what they did. Their history is our history.
Sources: "A Different Story" by Ruth Coder Fitzgerald; HistoryPoint.org of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library; The Free Lance-Star archives; State of Michigan Web site; African Within; The Kennedy Center; We Were Always Free By T.O. Madden Jr.; The Richmond Times-Dispatch; Life Magazine; Westmoreland County, Virginia. |
• Maddens of Culpeper, 'We were always free'
|
|
|
||
 |
|||
|
|||
