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Negro 4-H Clubs
During the Jim Crow era every area of life was segregated. In many ways, two parallel universes existed in the South and in Central Virginia; one white and one black. Since agriculture was vitally imporant to white and black farmers in Louisa…
Gordon Family
While many African American families struggled to survive as well as to receive a good education, there were a few families who prospered after emancipation. Reuben Gordon was a former slave who worked on the Garland Plantation. After the Civil War,…
Tags: African American, Segregation
Daily Life
For many African Americans, daily life after slavery was not much different than life in bondage. There was still a struggle for survival for many African American families. Most of the residents of Louisa County lived on farms and until Rural…
Jeff Porter
These images are photos of Jeff Porter and his home. Porter was born sometime in 1849. Throughout his lifetime in Louisa County, Porter lived at Trevillians Depot. We know little more about him than what these photos reveal, except that he was a…
Tags: African American, Segregation
Aunt Dinah Robinson
This photograph is an image of Aunt Dinah Robinson who served as the janitor at the Mineral High School during the era of segregation. In most cases, it was African Americans who worked as the janitors at white schools, and they witnessed the…
Tags: African American, Schools, Segregation
At Poindexter Store
This photograph is an image of three African American individuals outside of the Poindexter Store in Louisa County. The style of clothing of the two women in this photograph suggests that both are domestic workers (the apron and the hats). Often, if…
Tags: African American, Segregation
"WE LIFT AS WE CLIMB"
Early African American schools were designed to advance younger generations of African Americans. Within this community of individuals there was a belief that, as an African American became more educated and continued to exceed in society, the…
Tags: African American, Churches, Schools, Segregation
First Baptist Church
The picture on the left is an image of the original building for the First Baptist Church on its present location one block west of the courthouse. This is not the building that the trustees purchased in 1866. The picture on the right is an image of…
Purchase of property for First Baptist Church
These documents are copies from the Freedmen's Bureau Field Office at Louisa Court House of the contract between John Cammack and the trustees of the First Baptist Church (including Fountain Perkins) for the purchase of the building that would become…
Fountain Perkins
Church became a strong symbol in the African American community after the Civil War. To African Americans, the church was a place where they were in control and free of oppression. One of the first African American churches to be built and organized…
Tags: African-American, Reconstruction
Instructions for Registration/Racial Integrity laws
This document is a pamphlet directing Local Registrars and "Other Agents in Adminstration of the Law" on how to register indivduals on birth certificates. This pamphlet also contains a copy of the Racial Purity Act laws (for use at the discretion of…
Tags: African American, Civil Rights, Segregation
Race and Vital Records
This document is a letter from the Virginia State Registrar to all Local Registrars in Virginia demanding that the physicians and midwives take better care when writing ceritificates of birth and death. He explains that these certificates will become…
Tags: African American, Civil Rights, Segregation
Rosenwald Schools
Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears & Roebuck, was not only an entreprenuer, but he was also a philanthropist. Rosenwald created the Rosenwald Fund to help build schools for disadvantaged African Americans in the South during the segregation…
Tags: African American, Civil Rights
Delinquent Land Sale
This document is a notification of an auction that is scheduled to be held at the front door of the Louisa Courthouse on the first Monday in January of 1936. The items in up for auction are tracts of land whose owners failed to pay the taxes on the…
Voting Registration: Black
This document is a voting registration sheet that gives the names of all black ("colored") men and women who are registered to vote in the year 1946. The document states that the individuals on the document (all residents of the Louisa Courthouse…
Tags: African American, Civil Rights, Segregation, voting
Voting Registration: White
This document is a voting registration sheet that gives the names of all white men and women who are registered to vote in the year 1946. The document states that the individuals on the document (all residents of the Louisa Courthouse District) had…
Tags: Civil Rights, Segregation, voting
Historic Shady Grove School
The historic Shady Grove School was born out of a need to provide a facility for the education of black students in the Jackson District near Gum Spring. In the words of former State Supervisor of Negro Education(1925), W. D. Gresham,"the Shady Grove…
Tags: African American, Civil Rights, Schools
John Mercer Langston: Visit to Louisa
After his parent's death, Virginia law inhibited John Mercer Langston and the other children of Ralph Quarles and Lucy Langston from inheriting his father's estate. A friend, William Gooch, helped John and his brothers relocate in Ohio. As a young…
"Binding" Contract
This document is a contract between William B. Cocke and “his former servants.†The agreement specifies that his servants are to “bind themselves to go on to work on the farm and to do and attend to all the business…faithfully and…
Building A Home (Contract)
This document is a sharecropping contract between Richard Kennon and Samuel Brown. The agreement specifies that Brown is to repair a house located on Kennon’s land. He must also cultivate the land around the house. Brown’s work must be complete…