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Article Set - Chapter
The Green Decision of 1968
By 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court had lost patience with the slow pace of school integration. In New Kent County, Virginia
Time Period Chapter
The Growth of Industry
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New industries were emerging in Virginia’s cities. Richmond, Norfolk, Petersburg, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, and...
Article Set - Chapter
The Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a heroic episode in American history. It aimed to give African Americans the same citizenship rights that whites took for granted.
Article Set - Intro
The Portent: John Brown's Raid in American Memory
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John Brown remains one of the most controversial figures in our history. To destroy the institution of slavery, he firmly believed there was only one possible course of action. He saw what he thought was the ultimate wrong and tried in the only way he could imagine to right it. Which John Brown should we remember? The crusader for abolition or the bloodthirsty terrorist? Is it possible to list him among the great pantheon of American heroes, or do we still recoil from the image of his attack on an American military installation, an action that can be described by no term other than treason?
Time Period Chapter
The Revolutionary Era in Virginia
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Virginia—the largest and most populous colony—played a major role in winning independence and determining the values and...
Time Period Chapter
The Struggle for Equality
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The American concept that all people are equal and all have unalienable rights was introduced by Virginians George Mason...
Article Set - Chapter
The Weddells
Learn more about Alexander Weddell and Virginia Chase Steedman Weddell.
Article Set - Chapter
The World of Jim Crow
After the Civil War, Black Americans were no longer enslaved but they had not achieved equal status with whites in American
Article Set - Chapter
Turning Point: World War II
P. B. Young, editor of the Norfolk Journal and Guide, a black newspaper, spoke from the heart when he told white liberals,
Time Period Chapter
Virginia and the Planter Class
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Governor William Berkeley set out to imitate the society of inequality of wealth and education that he knew in England.
Time Period Chapter
Virginia and Women’s Suffrage
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Despite the socio-political changes that occurred during Reconstruction, women at the dawn of the twentieth century...
Article Set - Intro
Virginia's Colonial Dynasties
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In the colonial period, portraiture proved to be a particularly useful tool in establishing and preserving family status. This exhibit presents twenty-four portraits from the Virginia Historical Society's collection. Early Virginia portraits reveal much about the families that commissioned them, as well as how these Virginians valued how they were perceived by others.
Time Period Chapter
Virginia’s Traffic in the Atlantic World
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Tobacco proved to be good as gold for Virginians. Wealth from its sale and easy navigation of the colony’s rivers...
Article Set - Chapter
Voting Rights
To circumvent the Fifteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed voting rights to Black men, the 1901–02
Article Set - Chapter
W. E. B. Du Bois and the NAACP
W. E. B. Du Bois was the first black recipient of a Ph.D. from Harvard University. In The Souls of Black Folks, published in
Time Period Chapter
War on the Home Front
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For some, the war brought deprivation, horror, and loss right to their very doorsteps.