Search

The collection includes fliers, catalogs, and other material created by the Africana Studies Program at the College of William and Mary. The collection also contains records concerning the Black Studies Program, from which Africana Studies grew out of.

This oral history project accompanys and is used extensively for the "A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America" exhibit, which will be on display in the Virginia Museum of History & Culture from May 2024 until April 2025. The exhibit and the oral history project examine the legacy of Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington co-creating schools in the American South to educate Black children otherwise exluded from the public school system due to segregation laws. The oral history project consists of interviews with former pupils of Rosenwald schools in Virginia.

This oral history collection encompasses interviews that tell the story of the Bray School, the first extant building dedicated to the education of free and enslaved black children in the United States. The William & Mary Bray School Lab, part of the Williamsburg Bray School Initiative, has been researching and promoting the history of the Bray School and its legacy. Part of this work has entailed conducting oral histories with descendants of Bray School students and those researching or interpreting the Bray School's legacy.

A report sponsored by the Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, "Black Education in Williamsburg-James City County, 1619-1984" by Philip D. Morgan, 1985. 1 item. 76 pp.

Negative photostats of papers, 1730-1817, of the Bray Associates, a division of the Society of the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which was instrumental in providing libraries for the churches in America and setting up schools for the Christian education of free and enslaved Black children.

College scrapbook, 1931-1945, kept by Clarice Peterson Thompson at Virginia State College, Petersburg, Virginia. She entered information on festivities, outings, and plays attended in the pre-printed volume "Memories of My School Days." Several pages are taken up by names and addresses of classmates, as well as their entries and messages dedicated to her. In addition to congratulation cards glued into the volume, there are also a few loose items like news clippings, cards, and a lock of hair. Many pages are left blank.

Diary of an unidentified employee of the Freedmen's Bureau, who was working near Norfolk and Fort Monroe, Virginia, from October 9, 1865-November 29, 1865.

Photographs taken by George Oscar Ferguson. Subjects include a parade in Williamsburg, Va., African-American schools in Virginia, Camp Lee, Virginia, rural scenes in western Virginia, and Ferguson.

Collection contains papers documenting the family of Henry Waring Latane Lewis from Essex County, Virginia. Lewis was an episcopal minister in Essex County and often preached to African-Americans. The Collection includes papers ranging from correspondence to legal documents. Also included is a small ambrotype photograph and a list of names, possibly of enslaved individuals.

Record book, 1901-1903, of John H. Harvey, a teacher in Bon Brook Public School No. 4, a black school in Cumberland County, Virginia.