The collection includes meeting agenda and minutes, fliers, and related material of The Forum, the organization formerly known as the Black Faculty and Staff Forum at the College of William and Mary.
About 40 letters from George Beasley to his sweetheart, Rosa L. Johnson written between June 1941 and May 1945. Beasley was a Sergeant in the Army stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Camp Rucker, Alabama, and then overseas in France and Belgium. He served with the 3rd and 4th Battalion of the Armed Force Replacement Training Center, a segregated African American unit.
Three account books of free African American, Thaddeus S. Harris, of Abingdon, Virginia, dated 1855-1861, 1861-1866 and 1868. Goods purchased include items such as tobacco, sardines, cheese, sugar, candy, hair trims and shaves. Some books have an index. Census reports list him as a barber and confectioner.
Record book, 1901-1903, of John H. Harvey, a teacher in Bon Brook Public School No. 4, a black school in Cumberland County, Virginia.
This collection consists of letters from supervisors or sponsors to Minnie A. Hill, a northern female teacher, who was in Norfolk and then Petersburg, Virginia teaching at freedmen’s schools in the late 1860s.
Photograph album, circa 1930s, of the Rufae Holmes and Samuel B. Holmes families of Richmond, Virginia. Includes photographs of family members, including A.B. Holmes; schools, including Douglas High School in Baltimore; students; and activities including football and a road trip taken on the Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In 2014, family descendant Carole Osmet added six additional photos of the family.
Content warning: The John Hulit and Charles correspondence contains racist language. The materials have been processed for fair use and research purposes.
A letter sent to John Hulit of James City County, Virginia from Charles, last name unknown, dated December 7, 1851. The letter provides a general description of Williamsburg, Virginia in regards to hunting. Derogative terminology used to describe Black people is contained in this letter.
Ledgers, letters, receipts, and other material, circa 1850s to 1910, related to the Ives family of Falls Church, Virginia. Includes ledgers of S.S. Ives' business in Falls Church where he made and repaired items for wagons and carts. His customers included African-Americans. Also includes correspondence between members of the Ives family. There are also political materials, receipts, account books, and other materials.
Supporting documentation for the book, James City County, Virginia Cemeteries.
Copies of death records from the Jerusalem Baptist Church, an African American church near Five Forks in James City County, Virginia. One folder of records dates from 1908-1940s. Original in the hands of the three remaining members of the Church including Mary Howard as of 1986.
A letter from John W. McCalley to someone named William. The three page letter describes the circumstances around the escape of George, a person enslaved by McCalley.
Content warning: Contains language that is derogatory toward people enslaved, as well as towards people of color.
Primarily letters, postcards, and receipts, mostly from the period 1921-1923 of an African American family living in Lightfoot, Virginia. Family members included Signor Bradby, Elizabeth Bradby and Annie Bradby. Some papers relate to Willmore Jones, John Jones, and other Jones family members. Several transactions with the firm of J.A. Bozarth of Williamsburg are present.