100 Years of African American Life and Leadership in Falls Church, Virginia

Announced on September 13, 2010, the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation and the African and African American Studies program at George Mason University will research, and interpret, an African American community during the 19th and 20th centuries to help students, teachers, and residents more fully appreciate the contributions of African Americans to the city, the state, and the nation. The project will include an interactive website with a virtual tour of the community, lesson plans, a timeline, and more than 100 digitized primary resources, such as documents, photographs, maps artifacts, letters, and oral histories. Additionally, there will be a self-guided tour of the community with a map; two tours of the community guided by historical characters; and two teacher-training workshops that include lesson plans that meet Virginia's standards of learning.

The funding for this project is provided by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as part of a four project-initiative awarded a total of $20,000 in grants to raise awareness of certain African American sites and their significance in American history. Simultaneously, this work will provide model programs for other historic sites across the country. The other three projects are: Scottsboro Boys Museum University-Community Partnership, African Americans in Early New England, and Building Belmead: Layers of African American History.

For more information about the Interpreting African American Historic Places Project, contact Max A. van Balgooy, Director, at max_vanbalgooy@nthp.org. To find out more information about the 100 Years project, contact Dr. Wendi Manuel-Scott at Mason by email, wmanuels@gmu.edu.