Evelyn L. Barbour, passed in 2014 at the age of 78, after a short illness. She attended the Jefferson School and was among the first graduating class of Jackson P. Burley High School. She was an alumni of Virginia Union University and the University of Virginia School of Education. She taught in various school systems […]

The Liberation and Freedom Days Keynote is presented by Christie Coleman, Executive Director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation With a career spanning over 30 years, Christy S. Coleman has served as the Chief Executive Officer of some of the nation’s most prominent museums. She’s a tireless advocate for the power of museums, narrative correction, diversity and […]

Renowned author, historian and professor of African and African American Studies, Claudrena Harold, PhD, discusses her latest book, When Sunday Comes: Gospel Music in the Soul and Hop-Hop Eras.

Moderator: Gayle Jessup White, Community Engagement Officer, Monticello Panelists: Dr. Mabel Wilson, Professor of Architecture, Columbia University, Dr. Andrea Douglas, Executive Director, Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Kiara Boone, Deputy Director of Community Education, Equal Justice Initiative. If all goes to plan, by 2024, the anniversary of the installment of the last commissioned confederate […]

Bayeté will be joined on stage by Kevin McDonald, UVA’s new Vice-President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for a conversation about black identity and representation. Bayeté Ross Smith is a photographer, interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and educator from Harlem, New York. His work explores issues of identity and representations of African-American culture.  Mr. Smith is a faculty member at New […]

Join us for a conversation with New York Times bestselling author and the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, Ibram X. Kendi Ibram X. Kendi is a professor of history and international relations and a frequent public speaker, Kendi is a columnist at The Atlantic. He is the author […]

In conjunction with the Ernest Withers: Picturing the Civil Rights Movement 1957-1968 exhibition now on display, the Heritage Center is hosting Preston Lauterbach, author of Bluff City: The Secret Life of Photographer: Ernest Withers. In this gripping narrative history, Preston Lauterbach examines the complicated political and economic forces that informed Withers’s seeming betrayal of the people he […]

A Forum on Race, City Planning & Affordable Housing in Charlottesville The relationship between housing injustice and racial disparities is a long-standing problem in Charlottesville. The 1960s “urban renewal” project which decimated the African American neighborhood of Vinegar Hill is a well-known instance of this painful history, which local activists have addressed for years. Since […]

A Conversation with Photographer Sheila Pree Bright Join us for a conversation and book signing with internationally known artist, Sheila Pree Bright. The past resonates in Bright’s photographs collected in her new book, #1960Now: Photographs of Civil Rights Activists and Black Lives Matter Protests. Ms. Bright describes herself as a visual cultural producer documenting contemporary culture. […]

A Conversation with Photographer Radcliffe “Ruddy” Roy and Cultural Theorist Garnette Cadogan Seeing Black: Disrupting the Visual Narrative brings renowned black photographers together with leading cultural theorist to engage in conversations that explore issues of race and identity. The  photographers featured in this series question, confront, and provide alternatives to the current rise in divisive, discriminatory, […]