Footprints of African Americans in Alexandria

By Andrew Winfree

Footprints of African Americans in Alexandria is a thoughtful and focused book that is based on the premise of sharing knowledge, history, and inspiration regarding the African American experience, building on the knowledge with biographies of over two hundred individuals who have made or are making progress and positive changes possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Oct 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9781490795898

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Copyright 2019 Andrew Winfree.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9588-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9590-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9589-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019908589

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CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Reflections

I     Early History Of African Americans In Alexandria

II    Where They Lived – The Neighborhoods

III   Art & Media Makers

Adrienne Terrell Washington

Frances Colbert Terrell & Adrienne Terrell Washington

Alma Fairfax Murray Carlisle

Audrey P. Davis

Daniel Freeman

Elrich William Murphy

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Jefferi Keith Lee

Madeline Lindsey Green

Magnus L. Robinson

Marie Bradby

Terry Adkins

IV   Business & Style Makers

Arthur W. Bracey, Sr.

Joseph Lewis Cason

Charles E. Sias (AKA Charles E. Williams)

Dominick Barecroft

George Lewis Seaton

Washington (Wash Or W) N. Jackson

Joe Johnson

John Mckee

Joyce Woodson

Jube B. Shiver, Sr.

Judy Belk

Lewis Smith

The Lyles Funeral Service

Leroy Monk Davis #20

Moses Hepburn

Nelson E. Greene Sr.

Olander Banks Sr

Richard A. Diggs, Sr.

Sharon Colbert

Charles Eugene Tony Gee

V   Civic & Emergency Response Makers

The Sit-In Civic Makers Of Alexandria

Albert A. Beverly

Alice Morgan

Annie Beatric Bailey Rose

William Bill Willis

Jerome Stockton Buddie Ford

Thurston McClain

Char McCargo Bah

Charlene Caver Miller

Charles H. Nelson Sr.

Christopher Chris Thompson

Clayton Thompson Jr.

Connie Belle S. Chissell

Dr. William Henry Johnson

Elsie Taylor Jordan

The Saga of Pearl, Emily and Mary Edmonson

Eudora N. Lyles

Ferdinand T. Day

Fred H. Major

Gerald Wanzer

Helen Anderson Miller

Henry George

John A. Seaton

John Morehead

Joyce Rawlings

Julien G. Randolph

Lenwood Lenny Harris

Leonard R. Calloway

Lillian Stanton Patterson

Lillie Finklea and Louise Massoud

Louis C. Hicks

Louis L. Redding

Lynnwood Campbell

Maydell Casey Belk

Milton Turner

Morris R. Siebert

Ramona K. Hatten

Lawrence P. Robinson

Roger Clayton Anderson

Ronald Rust

Rosa Byrd

Ruby J. Tucker

Shirley N. Tyler

Clara Shorts Adams & Robert Adams

Theodore Jones, Sr.

Thomas Fuller

Dorothy Turner & Gwen Menefee-Smith

Captain Willie F. Bailey Sr.

Will Smith

William Douglas Wood, Jr.

William Goddard

VI    Education & Science Makers

Alfred D. Carter

Andretta Grinnell Adkins

Benjamin Banneker

Blanche Maness

Bonnie Bracey Sutton

Camay Calloway Murphy

Carlton A. Funn Sr

Christine Howard

Clifford Malcolm Reed

Cortelyou Wellington Payne

Delores Edwards Copeland

Dr. Dennis P. Lee Ph.D.

Dr. Rutherford H. Adkins Ph.D.

Dr. Arthur C. Dawkins, Ph.D.

Dr. Houston G. Brooks Ph.D.

Dr. Janice L. Winters, Ph.D.

Dr. Judith Saunders-Burton, Ph.D.

Dr. Michael Casey, Ph.D.

Edward Lloyd Patterson

Edith Littlejohn Allen

Ferris Holland

Francis K. Brooks

Frederick D. Essex

Gila S. Harris

Jacqueline LaMarr Henry Green

Jane A. Solomon Crouch

Mable T. Lyles

Dr. Mary Alice Franklin Hatwood Futrell, Ph.D.

Mary Smith Peake

Mayme Wilkins Holt

Helen Lumpkins Day

Natalie S. Vaughn

Nellie Brooks Quander

John F. Parker & Sarah A. Gray

William H. Pitts, Sr.

Welsey D. Elam

Rozier D. Lyles

Dr. & Mrs. Gilbert Mays

Valerie Bernice Stanton Henderson

Virginia Ann Hilton

VII   Entertainment & Music Makers

Andrew Evans

Callie Mae Terrell

Claude D. Hopkins

Courtney Brooks

Jose Hernandez

Monroe Martin

VIII  Law & Political Makers

Alfred W. Harris

Bobby B. Stafford, Esq.

Cathy L. Grimes-Miller, ESQ

Earl L. Cook

Mayor William Darnell Bill Euille

Harold Bass

Ira Robinson

James E. Henson, Sr.

John Montgomery Dawson

John Wesley Cromwell

Judge Nolan B. Dawkins

Joseph C. Waddy

Robert D. Ruffin

Samuel Wilbert Tucker

IX   Medical Makers

Dr. Charles West

Dr. A. Roy Heron, Jr.

Dr. Albert Johnson

Dr. Arthur Bracey

Dr. John T. Chissell

Dr. Nancy Durant Edmonds

Dr. Odell Mccants

Dr. Thea James

Dr. H. Garland Chissell Jr.

Harvey L. Gray

Dr. Henry M. Ladrey

Dr. Herbert Garland Chissell, MD

19th Century

Dr. Jonathan Milton Hopkins

Dr. Oswald Durant

Dr. Shearley Oliver Roberts, Ph.D.

X   Military Makers

1SG Charles L. Reeves, USMC Ret

Brigadier General Leo Austin Brooks, USA Ret

Carla Renee Jones

Colonel Chester J. Lenon, Ret.

Colonel Ethel S. Underwood, US Army (RET)

Maj. Edgar Boyd Mcgee, Usa Ret

BG Leo A. Brooks, Jr. USA (Ret)

Major Joseph O. Kahoe, Jr. USA Ret

Major (Ret) Margaret E.b.jones

LTC Paulette Francine Ruffin, USA (Ret)

Andrew N. Winfree

Csm Andrew N. Winfree Usar (Ret)

Post Everlasting Alexandria African Americans Who Died In The Service Of Their Country

Post Everlasting

LTC Thomas H. Turner, USAF Ret

Volunteers For Freedom Black Civil War Soldiers In Alexandria National Cemetery

XI   Religion Makers

Rev. Dr. Elbert Ransom, Jr. Ph.D.

Rev. Dr. Calvin E. Lawrence Sr.

Albert A. Anderson Jr.

Rev. Beverley Joseph Bolding

Rev. Fields Cooke

Rev. George W. Parker

Reverend Dr. Henry C. Brooks, Ph.D.

Rev. John O. Peterson

Reverend Lewis Henry Bailey

Rev. Lloyd A. Tony Lewis, Jr.,Ph.D.

Myron Contee

Rev. Charles A. Hall

Rev. & Mrs. Houston G. Brooks Sr.

Rev. Dr. Andrew W. Adkins

Reverend Clem Robinson

Rev. Dr. Daniel L. Brown, Ph.D.

Rev. Dr. Howard N. Stanton Sr. Ph.D.

Rev. Leland Warring

Reverend Samuel B. Ross

Reverend Samuel Madden

Thomas Blair

William Waugh Grimes

XII   Sports Makers

Aly Khan Johnson

Aaron Anderson

Arnold J. Thurmond

Brad Budda Smith

Oliver Bubba Ellis

Charles L. Price

Coach Louis R.W. Johnson

Earl Lloyd

Harry S. Burke

Major (Ret) Henry B. Norton

Herman Boone

Jackie Mason

Jim Lewis

Keith R. Bogans

Keith Burns

Lachina Robinson

Leon Day

Lesha Kennedy

Louis R. Harris Jr.

Lawrence Lucky Elliot

Paul Lorenzo Hines

Ratcliff Thomas

Rita Willis

Shirley M. Lee

Sori Kanu

Anthonio Tony Hunt

Terrence Jennings

Noah Lyles

Josephus Lyles

Tierra Ruffin-Pratt

Tynita Butts

William Chesley

Willie H. Crawford

Sources

Index

PREFACE

If you know I have a great history,

You will respect me.

If I know I have a great history,

I will respect myself.

T he purpose in writing this book is to create a source that covers contributions and achievements of African Americans who were born, lived or lives in the City of Alexandria, Virginia. Not all who were born here (Ex. Leon Day, Louis L. Redding, and William H. Johnson, etc) stayed here for any appreciable time. Their FOOTPRINTS still reside here.

The author will use the terms Black, Colored, Negro, and African Americans in the biographies of individuals in this book. In researching individuals, the terms were used interchangeable during certain eras. Therefore, the author decided to use the term that was used in that era, time, etc.

The authors’ mission is to write a book that touches on major African American contributions and at the same time not offend other achievements. Unfortunately, it was not possible to include all deserving African Americans of Alexandria in this endeavor. The author takes responsibility for any and all omissions of deserving individuals not covered in this book.

Many texts, history books and city publications do not cover or contain information on the contributions or achievements of African Americans in the City Of Alexandria. This book covers Alexandria’s African Americans in the areas of art, business, civic action, education, entertainment, law, media, medical, military, music, politics, religion, science sports, and style MAKERS.

Finally, a study of the legacy of African Americans in Alexandria yields not only a veritable treasure chest of information of missing Alexandria history but our state’s history as well. It is hoped that this publication will serve as a primer in honoring and illuminating the lives of the many who have endured and preserved. May we endeavor to learn from their travels, trials and triumphs.

LEST WE FORGET

INTRODUCTION

If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated

Carter G. Woodson

F ootprints of African Americans in Alexandria is a thoughtful and focused book that is based on the premise of sharing knowledge, history and inspiration regarding the African American experience, building on the knowledge with biographies of over 200 individuals who have made or are making progress and positive changes possible.

As an African American, growing up in Alexandria, I was not aware of any significant accomplishments of African Americans in the city. In fact, Negro History Week which was celebrated in February of each year was not vigorously promoted in the Colored Schools (two) of the city. Historian Carter G. Woodson was credited with the establishment of Negro History Month. We sang the Negro National Anthem the meaning of which was never explain to us of why the country needed two National Anthems. We read about Dr. Charles Drew, Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington and Joe Louis. Joe Louis was for young African Americans our visible hero.

In 1949, as I was transiting to Parker-Gray High School the Alexandria Public School System and the Daughters of the American Revolution sponsored a history essay contest on the life of a prominent white Virginian. The first year, the individual to be honored was George Mason. Would you believe the individual who won the city wide essay contest was this book’s author! I had never heard of George Mason or that he was of any importance to the State Of Virginia. There was a hotel in Alexandria named after him, so what! The first place prize was a DAR Medal (size of a nickel), a visit to George Mason’s home and the reading of the essay on a local radio station WPIK (8 am on a Saturday).

This book is a result of years of intermittent research of Alexandrian’s African Americans. The opening of the Charles Houston Recreation Center’s African American Hall of Fame, the dedication of the gymnasium, the naming of the swimming pool and the mural project was the impetus for me to finish this project.

The title word Footprints was chosen after deliberating between the words Trailblazers and Footprints. Using Webster’s definitions of the words footprint and trailblazer as a guide, chose Footprints. Footprint is a mark left by the shod or unshod foot, as in earth or sand. Over time erosion will wipeout a footprint, unless someone or body of people make efforts to preserve the print. Whereas, a Trailblazer is a person who blazes a trail for others to follow through unsettled country of wilderness or a pioneer in any field of endeavor. Not everyone can blaze a trail, but everyone leaves a footprint, whether positive or negative. One can learn from either positive or negative prints.

Throughout this book, a variety of terms are used to identify the ethnic population, currently known as African Americans. These terms vary with the name by which the population or its institutions have been called during given periods in the city’s history. Terms used by the author cited in this book’s bios reflect this variety.

The ethnic designations include: Africans, Africans in America, Colored, col’rd, coloured, persons of color, mulatto, Negro, Negroe, Afrr-American, and Black. The derogative six letter name, N— will not be used or mention in this book.

If you were born in the 1920’s or 1930’s, you’re listed as a colored girl or boy: If you were born in the 1940’s or 1950’s, you’re listed as Negro boy or girl: If you were born in the 1960’s or 1970’s you’re listed as Negro or Black: If you were born in the 1980’s or 1990’s you may be listed as Black or African American: Children born after the year 2000, may be designated as African Americans.

Thus, as we read, we need not be upset over the variety of ethnic designations used. These merely reflect the reality of designations used to define a powerful people during a given period.

This book leads off in Chapter I with African Americans in Early Alexandria. Chapter II describes and lists the neighborhoods where the majority of African Americans in Alexandria resided. The next fourteen chapters covers in biographic format, the stories of Alexandria’s African Americans in the following fields, called MAKERS : Art, Business and Style, Civic Actions, Education, Entertainment, Law/Legal, Media, Medical, Military, Music, Political, Religion, Science and Sports. Under Military Makers, the author pays tribute to those African Americans of Alexandria who made paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives in the military services of this country.

The biographies offer a view of individuals, who have contributed to the growth and change in each chapter, as well as those who have established a level of influence and those who serve as role models. They also provide insight into the lives and accomplishments of African Americans in Alexandria inclusive of notables as the city’s first African American mayor, Bill Euille and the first African American to play in a National Basketball Association game, Earl Lloyd.

While vigorously seeking to recognize those persons from the part who have sacrificed greatly, and those who have opened doors of opportunity so that others may pass through, I have done my best to share with you as many biographies and stories as possible of Triumph, Courage, Endurance and Excellent.

REFLECTIONS

IF THERE IS NO STRUGGLE, THERE IS NO PROGRESS

THOSE WHO PROFESS TO FAVOR FREEDOM

AND YET DEPRECATE AGITATION,

ARE MEN WHO WANT CROPS

WITHOUT PLOWING THE GROUND,

THEY WANT RAIN

WITHOUT THUNDER AND LIGHTNING.

THEY WANT THE OCEAN

WITHOUT THE AWFUL ROAR OF ITS MANY WATERS.

THIS STRUGGLE MAY BE A MORAL ONE,

OR IT MAY BE A PHYSICAL ONE,

AND IT MAY BE BOTH MORAL AND PHYSICAL,

BUT IT MUST BE A STRUGGLE.

POWER CONCEDES NOTHING WITHOUT A DEMAND.

IT NEVER DID, AND IT NEVER WILL.

West India Emancipation, speech at

Canadaigua, NY., 4 August 1857.

T he Author’s Valediction by David Wright who translated Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (circa 1382) to English in 1964 seems to reflect this author’s thoughts as I brought closure to this long undertaking.

Wright stated: … Now I pray all those who hear or read this little treatise, if there be anything in it which pleases them, to think Our Lord Jesus Christ from who proceeds all wisdom and all goodness; and if there be anything that displeases them, to ascribe the fault to my incompetence and not to my will, for I would gladly have spoken better had I the ability. As the Bible says, *All that is written is written for your instruction and that had been my aim. *(Wright p. 315) (see Timothy 3:16)

I

Early History Of African Americans In Alexandria

1790-1900

B rought to the New World against their will, Africans from the very start sought to advance and elevate themselves by education. Despite laws and customs, which limited or forbade the teaching of free blacks as well as slaves, African Americans sought to take advantage of whatever opportunities for education did exist, or to create them where opportunities did not exist. Neither hardships nor punishment stopped the attempt to learn. Indeed, education was central to the thrust or African Americans, individually and collectively, toward freedom, toward equality, toward self-definition. The Black pursuit of education was, from the start, an integral part of the ongoing African American liberation struggle.

In the late eighteenth century, Alexandria was a bustling port, one of the ten busiest in the United States, particularly due to tobacco and the increasing volume of grain exports.¹ Over the next one hundred and sixty years, the city witnesses a series of changes, including a difficult recession, a civil war, and World Wars I & II. Alexandria changed from a port to a center of manufacturing and railroad transportation, and became a suburb of the nation’s capital. The early population of this town was composed primarily of whites, free blacks and enslaved peoples.

As the port’s activity increased between 1790 and 1820, so did its population, which tripled in 30 years. According to the 1790 federal census, Alexandria’s population totaled 2,748 with 2,153 whites, 52 free blacks, and 543 enslaved people.² By 1820, the numbers had increased substantially, with 5,615 whites, 1,168 free blacks and 1,435 enslaved people. African Americans comprised a significant portion of the city’s population (32%). Tobacco was the dominant export in 1790, but its importance was diminishing, as wheat exports gained in profitability.

Exports of flour moved Alexandria to a level of competition with the ports of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. However, wars in Europe and high wheat tariffs in England dramatically reduced wheat exports until 1846 when Britain’s Corn Laws were repealed.³

Throughout this period, Alexandria’s African American population expanded. In 1790, most African Americans were living in, or adjacent to, the houses of whites. However, the city’s small group of free blacks (52 people) would experience a rapid increase over the next 20 years. The expanding economy and an excess of labor on plantations, provided incentives for owners to allow enslaved people to hire out. Many were able to work odd jobs after completing their regular duties and some were eventually able to purchase their freedom and anonymity.⁴

Alexandria officially became a part of the newly created District of Columbia in 1801. This new status removed Alexandria from the tightening laws of the South pertaining to slavery and free blacks. The city became relatively a secure and comfortable place for free blacks to live resulting in a large increase in the free black population. Runaway enslaved people found the city a refuge due to the number of sympathetic residents from non-slave holding states and territories and a transportation system that provided access to other regions of the North.

Although part of the new District of Columbia, the city followed many of the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1805, a law was enacted in Virginia requiring all free blacks to leave the state within one year of obtaining their freedom. However, the law was seldom enforced in Alexandria. With the city’s retrocession of Virginia in 1847, the law was modified to allow African Americans to remain in the city if a hearing was held, and it was determined that they possesses good character and were a peaceable, sober, orderly, and industrious person.⁵

In an urban setting such as Alexandria, free blacks and enslaved people often held jobs that required skilled labor. Many were carpenters, brick makers, and coopers. In the early part of the nineteenth century, Alexandria did not attract a large numbers of immigrants due to few job opportunities in iron, textile, and chemical manufacturing, jobs commonly undertaken by immigrants."⁶

Alexandria experienced a recession beginning in 1820 that lasted around twenty years. Several factors contributed to the decline, including a loss of trade to the larger ports of Baltimore and Richmond, and an embargo on certain products for export to England. Additionally, Georgetown, a competing port on the Potomac that was closer to the new Federal city, drew some of the city’s port business. Free black craftsmen, such as coopers, who depended upon commerce, were affected by this recession. Added to these negative economic factors was a devastating fire in 1827 in Alexandria that destroyed forty houses and several warehouses and stores.

The increase in Alexandria’s importance as a slave-trading city, between 1820 and 1840, the recession affected both enslaved people and free blacks. The city’s declining wheat and tobacco trades, and the abolition of foreign slave trading made buying and selling enslaved people to the South profitable. The Franklin and Armfield slave trading company did a brisk business at this time. They were reported to have shipped 100 or more slaves to New Orleans every two weeks. Many enslaved people were sold to regions in the South, separating them from their families.

In 1831, Nat Turner, a bondsman and religious leader, led a rebellion against slavery in Southampton County, Virginia. This rebellion added social tension to already difficult economic times. Many whites in Alexandria were afraid that free blacks would lead a similar rebellion in the city and were therefore a threat to their safety. The governor of Virginia proposed after the rebellion to appropriate funds to remove all free blacks from the state, but the proposal was not accepted. In response to this proposal, forth-three freedmen signed a petition and presented it to the mayor of Alexandria declaring that they would become informants in the event of a slave uprising. This document, which was signed by many of the most successful freedmen in the city, promised to …unite heart and hand in defending the authorities of the town and community against whatsoever enemy should rise up against them. And … that would promptly give public information of any plot, design, or conspiracy that might come to their knowledge to disturb the peace and jeopardize the safety of the community.⁷

A shift occurred during the recession (1820-1840) with the economy moving from an export-based one to one that included manufacturing, slave labor trading, and fish processing. Alexandria was never a major manufacturing center, but there was slow growth in the number and type of manufacturing enterprises. There were a few craft shops as well as a sugar refinery, tanneries, and a furniture factory. The Alexandria Canal Company completed a canal in 1845, which connected Alexandria with Georgetown via an aqueduct over the Potomac River and increased the town’s opportunities to move more products to the interior and from the interior to the port of Alexandria. With the completion of the canal, manufacturing increased, including a cotton mill that opened in 1847. Other industries that opened after the canal became operational included a gas works, a foundry, bakery, plaster mill, and three more tanneries.⁸

Despite the recession and evolution of Alexandria’s economy, the port offered opportunities for blacks, with many involved in the repair and building of ships, and others working in ship maintenance and operation. Blacks served as sailors in a larger percentage of their numbers than was so with whites.⁹ The port also provided employment in the fishing industry. Although the wages were not high, jobs could be found cleaning, salting, packing, and shipping fish that arrived in the port. Other low paying jobs in the city included washerwomen, domestic servants, and draymen.

Important changes began in 1847 when the city retroceded to Virginia. Because of this act, many free blacks who owned property left Alexandria for the District of Columbia. The Commonwealth of Virginia had more stringent laws regarding free blacks and enslaved people. One law, enacted in 1793, required free blacks to register their residency, but few actually complied with the law until the city was retroceded.¹⁰ Other laws restricted their ability to own property, travel, and to learn to read and write.

Between 1847 an 1860, Alexandria experienced a period of growth in commerce and industry with the success of the Alexandria Canal and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Alexandria began a short period of industrialization as coal, flour, grain, or other products moved through the city. The Civil War, however, interrupted the city’s economic expansion.

Due to its occupation by Union troops during the war, most of the city’s financial and commercial industry declined sharply. A few industries that were dependent on local markets, including breweries, brass and iron works, and cotton factories, remained open.¹¹ Alexandria became a Union hospital, railroad, and supply center. The Union army operated a slaughterhouse in the city, processing about 100 head of cattle a day to be packed in salt and dispatched to the front.

Another operation was the largest bakery in the world, located at the corner of Princess and Fayette Streets, where 200 employees produced 90,000 loaves of bread a day. Between 1861 and 1865, the Union supply station at Alexandria distributed 81 million pounds of corn, 412 million pounds each of oats and hay, and 530 million pounds of coal.¹² An occupied town throughout the war, the city’s financial and commercial base was eroded. Despite the economic difficulties, the city experienced a population boom as former slaves, known as contraband, and free blacks sought refuge in the city. The United States government in the Alexandria Freedmen’s Cemetery, between the years of 1864 and 1869 buried as many as 2,000 free blacks. The plot was established by the United States Military Authority which governed Alexandria, during the Civil War.

After the Civil War, Alexandria returned to a small-town pace. Times were difficult, but the city experienced new growth in its immigrant population. Previously, European immigrants had not been attracted to the local job market because of competition with enslaved people and free blacks for jobs and a lack of a need for the job skills usually common to immigrants. A few German Jewish immigrants had found opportunities in operating dry goods stores, bakeries, and shoe stores in the city prior to the Civil War. The influx of European immigrants after the war was in direct competition with Alexandria’s African Americans. ¹³

The town tried several unsuccessful business ventures to regain prosperity. The port and railroads remained in business shipping out the products of the town: bottled and barreled beer, baked goods-tea biscuits sent to England and breads to Baltimore and east-furniture and architectural parts, fertilizers, and agricultural products.¹⁴ Underground sewers were installed, replacing the open wood, brick, or cobblestone sewers, which appalled the Union soldiers during the occupation. The city’s economy also shifted between 1870 and 1900 as it moved from a small industrial city on the Potomac to a residential suburb of Washington, D.C. and transportation center of Northern Virginia.¹⁵

World War I brought the real economic upswing to Alexandria. Shipbuilding was a major enterprise on Jones Point where twelve steel ships were built, each costing over $1.5 million. Hundreds of workers were attracted to the shipyard and to the new Torpedo Factory. The growth of industry continued into the 1930s when the Ford Motor Company plant was built on the river just south of Old town.

The build-up for World War II transformed Alexandria by doubling the population and creating an urgent need for housing. There were 6,000 employees at the Torpedo Factory, which reopened in 1937 after closing in 1923. The railroad at Potomac Yard and the shipyard to the south also expanded greatly. Begun in 1943 with funding from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Parkfairfax and Fairlington residential communities provided suburban living in a landscape setting. Their 5,000 units made them the largest housing development in the nation; 85% of the residents were government workers.

Between 1790 and 1953, the lives of the black citizens living in Alexandria changed dramatically. Despite the challenges they faced, they created a community including educational opportunities, African American neighborhood, and communal organizations.

Quotes from The Harriet Jacobs Family Paper

Part -7 August 1862-October 1863, Alexandria: The Heart of the Struggle and Part -8 October 1863 – April 1865, Alexandria: Building Freedom.

New England Anti-Slavery Convention, Boston, May 28, 1863.

p. 493 – Mrs. Jacobs, from Alexandria, Va., (better known to many persons as ‘Linda,’ in the book of that name,) once herself a slave, and for many months past a superintendent of the aged and sick slaves, who had fled to Alexandria, was invited to the platform with two little orphan Colored girls, whom she had brought with her. The sight was evidently a touching one to the audience. It was stated that she purposed coming again to Boston in course of the summer, with more orphan girls, for whom she desired to obtain homes. Persons in the audience at once offered to take the two girls then present.

Jacobs to Lydia Maria Child, Alexandria, March 26, 1864

p. 558 – Describing a Freedmen’s Village being built in Alexandria. Within the last eight months seven hundred cabins have been built… Children abounded in these cabins. They peeped out from every nook and corner. Many of them were extremely pretty and bright looking. Some had features and complexions purely Anglo-Saxon; showing plainly enough the slaveholder’s horns of amalgamation. Some smiled upon us, and were very ready to be friends. Others regarded us with shy, suspicious looks, as is apt to be the case with children who have cramped childhood. But they all wanted to accept our invitation to go to school, and so did all the parents for them.

Life Among the Contrabands (Signed Linda) June 10, 1862.

p. 400 – "I found men; women and children all huddled together, without any distinction or regard to age or sex. Some of them were in the most pitiable condition. Many were sick with measles, diphtheria, scarlet and typhoid fever. Some had a few filthy rages to lie on; others had nothing but the bare floor for a couch.

p. 405 – "I found a young woman, with an infant, who had just been brought in. She lay in a dying condition, with nothing but a piece of an old soldier coat under her head. Must I leave her in this condition? I could not be in Alexandria. It was time for the last boat to leave for Washington.

p. 405 – After attending to the sick mother and child, we started for Fairfax Seminary (Fairfax Seminary Hospital, the largest facility in the region, was located on the grounds of the old Protestant Episcopal Seminary along Quaker Lane and Seminary Road). They send many of the convalescent soldiers to this place. The houses are large, and the location is healthy. Many of the contraband are here. Their condition is much better than that of those kept in the city. They soon gathered around Mr. Clarke, and begged him to come back and be their boss. He said, Boys, I want you all to go to Hayti. They said, You gwine wid us, Mr. Clarke? No, I must stay here, and take care of the boys."

p. 411–"20. A house at 63 Cameron Street in Alexandria was home to a number of former slaves. In February 1863, Julia Wilbur would take a census of the inhabitants of the house, noting the refugees’ destitution and some cases of smallpox.

Alexandria, January 15, 1863, my dear Mrs. Barnes

p. 432 – The small pox is raging here among whites as well as Coloreds.

ALS; Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society Papers, MiU

p. 434 – "8. John R. Bigelow (ca. 1808 -?), a physician originally from Massachusetts, was an acting assistant surgeon, USA. He would arrive in Alexandria on January 2, 1863. Between 1840 and 1847, he had relocated to New York City, where he likely met Albert Gladwin. Stationed in Alexandria, together with Samuel Shaw and J.W. Graves, Bigelow would also supervise the small hospital at Claremont, a syphilitics hospital at Hunting creek, ‘a house in the city’ (the Colored Hospital at the corner of Wolfe and Washington Streets in Alexandria), and a general hospital with between fifty and one hundred beds.

Colored Refugees in our Camp, Alexandria, March 18, 1863 (written by a former slave)

p. 468 - …During the winter months, the small pox carried them off by hundreds, but now it has somewhat abated. At present, we have one hundred and forty patients in the hospital.

Wilbur to Hon. P.H. Watson, Asst. Sec. of War, Washington, DC, April 1, 1963. Ravages of the Small Pox

P. 481 – … In two months, seven hundred and these fugitives died of that terrible disease. A hospital was established four miles out of town, to which patients were removed, and where they were visited by a surgeon once in two days. Their only nursing came from the hands of one or two of their own race, unused to such an occupation. They soon came to dread the thought of going to this hospital and the poor creatures would hide away when sized with the fatal malady, oftentimes to die unknown and unattended.

Incidents. 482 – Very near to this Women’s Hospital is an old one-story brick building, its moss-grown roof, the broken windows and crumbling doorways, have a tale of their own to tell. Built in obedience to a bequest of Washington … (Sounds like bequest for the Alexandria Academy, but it is not one-story.) "… They (no explanation) stole the fund; and since then the building has been uses as a sort of hospital for the Negroes. It soon became dangerous to the neighborhood, for these unfortunate people lay on the bare floor dead and dying, with little if any medical attendance. Finally, they were removed to the upper story of an old mill by the waterside. We clambered into that place, up a rickety ladder. It was a complete realization of destitution and misery. Of course, the sick died there.

H. Jacobs & L.M. Jacobs to Lydia Maria Child, Alexandria, March 26, 1864.

p. 561 – We went to the wharf last Tuesday, to welcome the emigrants returned from Hayti. It was bitter cold day, the snow was falling, and they were barefooted and bareheaded, with scarcely rags enough to cover them. They were put in wagons and carried to Green Heights (?). We did what we could for them. I went to see them next day and found that three had died during the night.

Beginning in March 1864, a number of emigrant refugees returned from Haiti and settled at the Contraband Camp at Arlington (Alexandria County) after a failed venture sanctioned by President Lincoln to relocate former slaves in Ile Vache. According to Ira Berlin, unscrupulous Northern promoters abandoned several hundred Black emigrants to sicken and die. On February 1, 1864, President Lincoln ordered Secretary of War Stanton to bring back colonists who wished to return. Superintendent Danforth B. Nichols reports receiving at the camp 407 persons, recently returned from the Island of ‘A’Vache’. These were disposed of, late in the afternoon and on the next morning (the 23rd [March 1864]) quite easily, a number of colored soldiers came down to my quarters and asked permission to enter the camp for the purpose of enlisting men from those recently from Hayti.

Report of Julia A. Wilbur (to Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society), East Avon, NY, October 1, 1864.

p. 583 – As the condition of these people improves, the amount of sickness among them is materially lessened. There has not been probably, one-forth as much small pox as during the previous year, and the Small Pox Hospital at Claremont is used for white soldiers as well as Colored people. …As far as I can learn, the patients now are properly cared for, and all fare alike; …

p. 584 – The Colored Hospital in Alexandria is now an institution that I am quite proud of…last fall and winter …. The chief surgeon said ‘these sick people wanted nothing but corn bread and pork,’ and he certainly seemed indifferent as to whether they had anything else. He said a hospital was unnecessary, but was very willing to draw a salary from the Government on account of it …there was much suffering for want of proper food and nourishment.

Jacobs to the committee, Alexandria, May 23, 1864

p. 573 – "I have just witnesses a novel and solemn scene, a funeral in the open air. The deceased, Peter Washington, Was an old man, and a slave until the breaking of the war. He lived in the house with us, and was a missionary among the Freedmen. In his ardor to do the work to which he considered God had especially appointed him, his zeal was unwearied. At all times, in sunshine and in storm, he might have been seen wending his way to some home where affliction had fallen, or to the House of worship, where the people listened with rapt attention to his quaint earnest utterances.

Attached to the house we occupy is a large yard: here preparations were made for the funeral; seats were arranged, and a table spread with a white cloth for the bible and Hymn Book. At half past two, the people began to gather, and the hundreds that came were neat in dress and respectful in manners. The Superintendent introduced a co-laborer of the deceased – a man whom nature had blessed with much ability. Had he been born free, he would have made his mark in the world. He read a hymn so often sung at burials-

Why do we mourn departed friend, &c.

His tone partook of the tragic, but the slight touch of the ridiculous was lost in the deeper emotions of the man.

After the singing and a prayer, a minister, an early associate of the deceased, gave a brief sketch of the life of Peter Washington. He had eight children; in one day, he was bereft of his six daughters and five grandchildren. On that day, said the minister, he leant on me, and with a bursting heart exclaimed, ‘If it were not for my hope in Christ, I could not bear up under this trial.

As the speaker proceeded with is memories of the past, many of his hearers seemed to find an echo to a like experience in their own souls. They swayed their forms, and moaned as if some wound of the past was being freshly probed. No child came to bid him a last farewell, they are scattered I know not where; his two sons are in the army, battling for the country their father loved in spite of her persecutions to him and his."

Living Conditions/Homes

Jacobs to William Lloyd Garrison, August 1862

p. 399 – In Washington, a city flooded with escaped slaves, Jacobs found chaos. Everything – food, housing, clothing, and medical care- was needed… She soon discovered similar conditions in Alexandria, Virginia.

p. 401 – Still, there were other places in which I felt, if possible, more interest, where the poor creatures seemed so far removed from the immediate sympathy of those who would help them. These were the contrabands in Alexandria. This place is strongly secesch; the inhabitants are kept quiet only at the point of Northern bayonets. In this place, the contrabands are distributed more over the city. In visiting those places, I had the assistance of two kind friends, women. True at heart, they felt the wrongs and degradation of their race. These ladies were always ready to aid me, as far as lay in their power. To Mrs. Brown, of 3rd street, g, and Mrs. Dagans, of Alexandria, the contrabands owe much gratitude for the kindly aid they gave me in serving them. In this place, the men live in an old foundry, which does not afford protection from the weather. The sick lay on boards on the ground floor; some, through the kindness of the soldiers, have an old blanket.

p. 402 – From this place, I went to Birch’s slave-pen in Alexandria. This place forms a singular contrast with what it was two years ago. The habitable part of the building is filled with contrabands; the old jail is filled with secesh prisoners – all within speaking distance of each other. Many a compliment is passed between them on the change in their positions. There is another house on Cameron Street, which is filled with very destitute people.

Wilbur to Emily Howland, Alexandria, February 7, 1863

p. 444 – "I wish the ‘Contrabands’ to have the benefit of all these things, but as yet they (the women) have been in no situation to receive instruction in sewing, & there is no room where we could gather them together for this purpose. Thee wd. Not be surprised at this could thee but see where most of these people live, for the new barracks are not yet done. We hope they will be in a week or two, yet it may be a month yet before they can be occupied. Stoves are not readily obtained, and we shall be thankful if we can get them by waiting. – In the (each) room below wh. Must accommodate 12 t o14 persons, there will be a cupboard, a table, two benches and a stove, and in the chamber above each room are bunks or berths for these 12 to 14 persons. The rest of their furniture we expect them to acquire by degrees. Mrs. Jacobs have brought some pails and brushes and tin cups, but not near enough, and I think I have money enough to supply each chamber with a certain necessary article. The Freedmen’s Assoc. Of N.Y. have sent 22 quilts, 40 pillows and 17 tin cups. We have a few bed ticks I wish they cd. have sheets, for I am very desirous that they should have beds like civilized people. – There are 3 building each 150 ft. in length and they are expected to accommodate for 800 people. – Our supplies of clothing have been very liberal, thanks to the good of the North. I think bedding is needed now more than clothing, excepting shoes, and these are much-needed especially large wide ones. – There is a large room in one of the building that is intended for meeting and school purposes.

Wilbur to Anna M.C. Barnes, Alexandria, February 27, 1863

p. 451 – There is one family I found in an alley a few wide, where none of us had been before, several small houses, some owned by secesh, wh. are rented to Contrabands.

Wilbur to Peter H. Watson, Washington, D.C. April 1, 1863

p. 473-4 –There are over 2000 of these people in Alexandria. Some have taken care of themselves entirely since coming there. Many others would have done so had they been paid regularly for their work.

"Some of these men and women have worked five and six months for the government and received no pay until very recently. At one time about 1300 received rations, but not