Winter 2024 Journal honors Black history in Virginia
The sixth journal history section contains resources that coincide with the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia's exhibit, A Prescription for Change, which delves into Black Activism in Virginia and the Black Hospital Movement. We feature a conversation with Dr. William Ferguson Reid, Jr., and his distinguished father, Dr. William “Fergie” Reid, Sr., a well known civil rights leader in Richmond and Virginia’s first Black member of the House of Delegates since Reconstruction. Both men share an interest regarding the preservation of the abandoned Black hospital on the Virginia Union University (VUU) property. We explore the history of the Richmond Community Hospital, which started in 1902 on Baker Street in a large commercial building purchased at auction. As is well known, the desegregation of Virginia public facilities did not begin in earnest until the late 1960s. The VWP Winter edition branches into three tracks; an essay on the history of RCH, a compilation of the newspaper resources we used to write the articles, and third, the community effort to preserve this historic structure. Last, we asked the senior Dr. Reid to contextualize the importance of the hospital in the community and remembrances he keeps of individuals associated with the building, and tangential incidents.
Our research explores other topics of interest to Richmond history and culture aficionados: the Reverend John Jasper, the Reverend William Wells, photographer Edyth Carter Beveridge, and the Lunenburg County trials of three Black women and a male for the brutal murder of a White woman. As we did with the hospital, we include a collection of newspaper resources used in part to write this story. This story also shadows the significant role played by the Richmond Black newspaper, The Richmond Planet.
We also share with readers insights into a country store in Nelson County. This issue again celebrates the talent of the gifted students at Caroline High School as well as those of numerous talented contributors who sent us their prose and poetry.
Link to VWP Winter 2024 publication: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPCMNPNL
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