Landmarks: black historic sites on the Eastern Shore of Virginia

The book includes more than 140 sites—churches, schools, lodges, businesses, and cemeteries—that have been, and in some cases still are, landmarks in the history of the Shore’s African American communities. Some of the buildings—the lodge halls and churches in particular—served multiple uses, and as a result they have layers of meaning that are often retained only in the memories of the Shore’s older black residents.

A capsule history is provided for each of the sites; and with a handfull of exceptions, each site "portrait" includes at least one photograph. ‘Ihere are maps of each county showing individual site locations (those that are not publicly accessible are so noted); and every site is identified with GPS coordinates—an important step since many of these sites either have already been transformed, are threatened by development, or the buildings themselves are badly deteriorated and in danger of being lost.


Thus, the book is both an interpretive record and a brace against time and change. In the past, the march of "progress," natural decay, and economic pressures have often pushed important African American landmarks into the shadows of Virginia’s "hidden history," where after a generation or two they are lost even to memory.

This problem is especially acute in places where rapid development and gentrification are displacing long-established communities and vital links in the oral tradition are broken whenever people die or move away.


Initially copies of Landmarks will be distributed free-of-charge to every public school and library on the Eastern Shore and to the local historical societies, as well as to the owners of historic sites and the organizations they represent— lodges, churches, and others.
But this publication is also a landmark in its own right, a milestone in the "history of history" on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, and a model that could be used to inspire and encourage other communities in the state to undertake similar projects. A volume of Eastern Shore African American biographies is currently being planned as a follow-up.





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