Browse Items (77 total)

A photograph of a tenant farmer known as Aaron with a horse. Taken around 1930, while Aaron was working a piece of land on the John T. Lewis, Jr., estate in Clarksville, Virginia.

Black and white aerial photograph showing the Town of Blacksburg and New Town's location within it. New Town location designated by red arrow.

Ginger Wagner and unnamed individual sitting on porch of a New Town house (exact date unknown).

New Town house with white car under carport (exact date unknown).

New Town House (exact date unknown).

New Town House 2 (exact date unknown).

Laura Lee Anderson and unnamed individual (exact date unknown).

Drawing of Penn Street Church.

Map of early Blacksburg showing "present location of the negro population" (exact date unknown).

Photograph of "Negro school house" building (ca. 1948) in Blacksburg. From "A Negro Neighborhood for Blacksburg, Virginia," by Martha Shupp Phillilps. Master's Thesis in Architecture (1948),

Thanksgiving service program of Grand United Order of Odd Fellows (exact date unknown).

Handwritten Vaughn property deed (exact date unknown).

House and Lot bill of sale, Vaughn .

Handwritten Watson property deed (exact date unknown).

St Johns Day: St Paul A.M.E. Church, Blacksburg, VA (exact date unknown).

Matt Winston Sr., Virginia Tech class of 1959, was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1938, the youngest of three children. Though he grew up in a time of warfare and racial segregation in a poor family, he enjoyed his childhood. He remembers being hardly…

Jacqueline “Jackie” Eaves graduated from Christiansburg Industrial Institute in 1964 and was a member of the Alumni Association. Jacqueline was born in Radford, Virginia and raised in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Naomi Davidson graduated from Christiansburg Industrial Institute in 1954. Naomi grew up in the Wake Forest community in Montgomery County, Virginia, and later retired in Pulaski County, Virginia.

Gladys Sokolow graduated from Christiansburg Industrial Institute in 1953. Gladys grew up in Pulaski County, Virginia and later resided in Christiansburg, Virginia. Gladys served as Treasurer for the Christiansburg Institute Alumni Association Board…

Esther Jones graduated from Christiansburg Industrial Institute in 1939. Esther used the skills she acquired at CI to assist her husband in running a mine in Wake Forest, Montgomery County, Virginia.

Mary Smith Mills attended Christiansburg Institute from 1941 to 1945. Mary grew up in Christiansburg, Virginia and later became the first black woman to work at a clothing store in downtown Blacksburg.

Charles Johnson graduated from Christiansburg Industrial Institute in 1953 and served as President of the Christiansburg Institute Alumni Association. Johnson employed the barbering trade he acquired at CI for many decades in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Frank Bannister was born in Wake Forest, Virginia in 1913, and his family members were descendants of Kentland Plantation slaves, which is now Kentland Farm in Whitethorne, Virginia. Bannister describes growing up in Wake Forest, working in the…

Rice Dobbins grew up in Riner, Virginia in an area called Piney Wood. Dobbins primarily worked as a farmer in the Montgomery County area, specifically on Heth Farm (present day Heathwood Apartments). He moved to Blacksburg in the late 1930s, where he…

Rosa Thomas Holmes, originally born in Beckley, West Virginia, grew up in the Christiansburg area. Holmes attended Hill School in and Christiansburg Industrial Institute before attending Virginia State College. She worked as a teacher in Florida…

Charles A. Johnson was born in Wake Forest, Virginia, where he grew up and received his primary education. Johnson graduated from Christiansburg Institute in 1953 before serving in the Army. When Johnson returned from the Army, he began cutting hair…

James C. Wade was born and raised in Blacksburg, Virginia. Wade graduated from Christiansburg Institute in 1959, and served in the Army before moving back to the Montgomery County area. In this interview, Wade describes race relations in Blacksburg,…