A series of interviews with a selection of Reston’s African American pioneers was conducted for Reston Community Television’s program entitled “Reston’s African American Legacy”. A book containing a selection of the interviews, Reston's African…
The website includes “the names of enslaved and formerly enslaved Virginians who authored narratives of their lives, were the subjects of biographies, or who spoke to journalists or oral historians.”
The course involves examining and learning about history from a different perspective from what is taught in a typical history class. There also is a heavy emphasis on examining local history, going as small as your neighborhood potentially. The goal…
Interviews of Fairfax County residents were collected by Marion Dobbins to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The interviewees described their personal involvement with the Civil Rights Movement. Each interview is…
The citations are labeled either 100 or Additional. The description of each person’s biographical interview will include major topics mentioned in the interview.
- Ailene V. Borgus –100 grew up on Ash Grove Farm, attended Odrick’s School and…
Alvin Jason Brown (1897-1983) was a lifelong African American resident of the Great Falls/McLean area. In this interview conducted by C.J.S. Durham, Brown recalls the previous owners of Towlston Grange and former residents of the Towlston Road area. …
Fairfax County Public Schools Alumni and Educators Share Memories of Desegregation
Rayfield Barber was the first Black student to integrate a FCPS public high school.
Joe and Sharon Parks integrated FCPS high schools. Joe attended Groveton…
Oral History taken in February 2021 by Sylvia Taylor, Historic Vienna, Inc. Board Member. They discussed Preston’s growing up in Vienna, his career as a Fairfax County Police Commander, being the first African American Commander at the Mount Vernon…
Gloria Runyon and her family have lived in Vienna, Virginia, as she puts it, since “before it became Vienna.” Her roots in the town grow at least as far back as her great-grandfather, a Cherokee Indian, who built the home in which she still lives.…
This interview brought together James & Gloria Carter, Ronald Honesty, Jean Minor, Ted & Lorraine Thomas, and Daniel Bunaugh. The group discussed a wide array of subjects, including attending Louise Archer (formerly known as the Vienna Colored…
Robert Frye moved to Fairfax in 1967. Three times a member of the Fairfax County School Board-- both appointed and elected--Bob Frye worked for equal opportunity in the county as the area emerged from the era of segregation. He was the first minority…
African American Dennis Howard describes his family who lived in Merrifield, Tremont, Falls Church and Ilda. He describes how his great grandfather Horace Gibson, who purchased his freedom from slavery, and with another former enslaved person Moses…
Both Helen Haight and Aileen Wright were raised in the Pines, a segregated community near today’s location of Pine Ridge Park. They grew up with no telephone, no electricity, no indoor plumbing, a wood stove, and an ice box. They had to haul water…
Dramatic reading from historical documents performed by Bob Hartman, Janis Harless, Jerry Lyons, Gary Knipling, and Anne Barnes. Produced ... in order to document a small antebellum settlement of free Blacks clustered along Neck Road, now known as…
Judith Saunders Burton grew up in Gum Springs, Virginia and lived in Prince Edward County and Farmville, Virginia during the years of school desegregation.
This was a livestream presentation on Thursday, January 14, 2021, from George Washington’s Mount Vernon. It was a live discussion between William Holland and Brenda Parker, Mount Vernon Character Interpreter & African American Interpretation &…
