November 2, 2023 Many of the people enslaved by John Hartwell Cocke of Bremo between1803 and 1865 could read and write. Separated from their families and community by forced migrations, they wrote letters back to Bremo. This exhibit features those letters, alongside artifacts connected to their lives. The exhibit is the result of collaboration between descendants of the men, women, and children enslaved at Bremo, a descendant of John Hartwell

October 5, 2023 LaToya Gray-Sparks is the new Community Outreach Coordinator at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR). During this presentation, LaToya will highlight her work on documenting and mapping landscapes of erasure and how this influences her work at DHR. She will also address the challenges and opportunities for community engagement in historic preservation.

September 7, 2023 Ed Brooks will speak to the truth of the Esmont community existing today as the name of a former plantation that merged into a very prosperous segregated community that boomed from its unique natural resources and equally faded as those resources diminished. Simultaneously, it’s nearby African-American neighbors was becoming noted as one of the more progressive communities in all of Albemarle County. What has that culminated into

There is no meeting August 2023.

July 6, 2023 Helice Jones, Erik Irtenkauf and Alice Cannon will present the story of the Free Union Fire of 1896 One White man died in a fire  in Free Union on a cold January night in 1896 and four Black Men fell under suspicion for his death.  One was hanged, one sent to the penitentiary for 18 years, one sentenced to five years in prison and one testified to

June 1, 2023 The film explores the ten distinct yet overlapping African-American Communities in Fluvanna County, all of which are anchored by Baptist churches that were founded during America’s reconstruction period. As these sacred places provided refuge, they also became the gate keepers of African-American culture. The film also offers insight into the history of education in the region, shares stories and experiences of attendees of the schools, shows the

May 4, 2023 One Shared Story is a nonprofit educational organization founded in 2018 to preserve, protect and promote hidden history. In addition to making resources available to community partners by providing training and through hosted Omeka services, the organization uses the online mapping platform – ArcGIS. These shared best practices and technology resources allow our friends and neighbors to develop and control shared access to precious historic artifacts and

April 6, 2023 Jalane Schmidt and UVA Graduate Student Researchers This presentation investigates the significance of Charlottesville’s Court Square as an Antebellum site of enslavement. Led by Jalane Schmidt, Director of the University of Virginia’s Memory Project and a team of graduate student researchers, the project uncovers the critical role that the Albemarle County Court played as both an arbiter of enslavement and an instrument of dehuminization. By revealing the

March 2, 2023 A Way to Keep from Losing Our History Joanna Green, Archeologist – Cemetery Preservation for the Community Services Division of Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources will discuss the debut of the DHR online tool to record Virginia cemeteries and will give a presentation on Virginia Burial Law. Robin Patton and Gloria Gilmore will talk about the “cemetery days” that One Shared Story has organized working through African-

February 2, 2023 Scot French, a longtime member of the UVA-Charlottesville research community, will discuss his collaboration with Lenora McQueen on their Morven Summer Institute class, ARH 4500/AAS 4559 Morven’s Enslaved and Descendant Communities. The place-based course, to be offered again this summer, includes guided student research, field trips, and collaboration on a final digital project. French is a digital public historian specializing in the study of cultural landscapes associated