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 202.588.6000 or 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, or telephone,
703.993.1201.
On Sept. 13, the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation and the African and African American Studies program at George Mason University co-sponsored "100 Years of African American Life and Leadership," held in Falls Church, Va. At the event, experts presented their research of 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 included 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, the event featured 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 included lesson plans that met Virginia standards.
The funding for this project was provided by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as part of a four-project initiative, entitled "Interpreting African American Historic Places Project," that 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.
For more information about the 100 Years project, contact Dr.Wendi Manuel-Scott by email (wmanuels@gmu.edu).