Teachers: No plan for Black History Month? This Black History group can fill the gap

By Laura Longley

COVID has left many a Loudoun teacher with little or no time to pull together a Black History Month program. If you know someone in that pickle, you can do them a good turn by pointing them to the Black History Committee of Friends of Thomas Balch Library and its website (balchfriends.org/black-history-committee).

The BHC sections in the Friends site offer a wealth of curriculum resources, tour maps and histories of the County’s African American communities, photographs, enslaved peoples’ stories, information on local abolitionists and the Underground Railroad, and background on the “Civil War” amendments—the 13th, 14th, and 15^th—and their legal impact.

Chaired by Donna Bohanon, one of Loudoun’s most active and influential leaders in Black history and education, the Black History Committee was founded in 2000 “to preserve, collect, promote, and share the history of African Americans who contributed to the emergence and development of Loudoun County, Virginia.” To meet that mission, over the past 22 years Black History Committee members have commissioned and published books on the people, places, heritage, and histories of the County. Their historian-narrated tours of African American communities became so popular the team producing them had to double the number of excursions. The tours have been on hold since COVID.

Overall, BHC’s books, programs, and ongoing activities reveal the landscape of Loudoun that reflects the industry and achievement of African Americans in the post-emancipation years when, in the words of an African American folk saying, they found “a way out of no way.”

Perhaps the most vital way was through the supportive communities they formed. BHC’s publications such as Loudoun’s African American Communities: A Tour Map and Guide take you into the villages and lives of the people in Howardsville, Irene, Mount Pleasant (Scattersville), Conklin, Guinea Bridge, and Willisville, recently enrolled in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Village of St. Louis, in southwestern Loudoun, is a priority focus for the Black History Committee right now. As the County Planning and Zoning staff, under the direction of the Board of Supervisors, moves forward with a master plan that will address village infrastructure, including water quality and availability, the BHC will be participating in the County task force dedicated to the village’s future and long-term preservation plans.

Teachers and historians will find the BHC’s “Glimpse into the African American History of Loudoun County” (balchhistory.org/glimpse) one of the most useful sources in Virginia. An extraordinary compendium of primary documents and excerpts from secondary sources, it is organized by eight essential understandings and supporting documents related to Virginia standards of learning.

“Runaway Slave Ads” from the “Genius of Liberty,” a four-page weekly published in Leesburg, from 1817-1843, are also available in the BHC section of the Friends’ website. Assembled by author-historian Bronwen C. Souders of Waterford, the collection includes more than 200 advertisements, approximately 50—or more than a quarter—representing individuals jailed in Leesburg. The remaining 150 plus advertisements were placed by the owner or renter and gave varying amounts of information—personal and general. Many ads request that they be reproduced in one or more of 31 regional newspapers in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. On the list, you can click on “Date of Ad” and view the actual ad as printed. Of the 217 total individuals listed, one third (73) had a first and last name; 144 had just a first name.

At the close of her introduction, Souders wrote, “The author hopes that researchers in other counties and states will find name and place links that will enable a broader picture to be formed of the flights to freedom by these brave individuals”

Her wishes are being fulfilled. In 2017, a fledgling digital humanities project associated with Michigan State University received funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. With these contributions, Enslaved.org is building a linked open data platform that makes available thousands of records of people, events, places, and sources that span slavery in North and South America, Africa, and Western Europe, from the 15^th century to the final slave emancipation in Brazil, in 1888.

Not surprisingly, the Black History Committee has stepped up to play a part. The BHC is the recipient of a grant from the Enslaved.org project; the group is scheduled to work with the support staff in 2022 and upload an important dataset, “The Enslaved Community of President James Monroe.”

If you, a friend, or colleague would like to lend a hand in preserving, collecting, promoting, and sharing the history of African Americans in Loudoun County, why not attend a Black History Committee meeting at Thomas Balch Library? The group meets on the first Saturday of every month at 10 a.m.; the public is always welcome.

For more information visit www.balchfriends.org or call 540-579-2825.