Browse Items (79 total)

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,…

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.

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.

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…

Card recounting first letters of password sequence for Tadmore Light Lodge #6184

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),

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

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

New Town House (exact date unknown).

New Town House 2 (exact date unknown).

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

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.

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

This photograph depicts the house of a tenant farmer known as Aaron working a piece of land on the John T. Lewis, Jr., estate in Clarksville, Virginia. Taken around 1930.

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

This photograph shows a tenant farmer known as Aaron and two other unidentified people on the front porch of a tenant house on the John T. Lewis, Jr., estate in Clarksville, Virginia. Taken around 1930.

This photograph depicts the tenant house of a tenant farmer known as Aaron working a piece of land on the John T. Lewis, Jr., estate in Clarksville, Virginia. Taken around 1930.

Photograph of the home of a tenant farmer known as Aaron working a piece of land on the John T. Lewis, Jr., estate in Clarksville, Virginia. Taken around 1930.

Correspondence between two members of the Blacksburg chapter of the Household of Ruth, a women's auxiliary organization to the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows.

Card with price list for secretarial supplies available from Odd Fellows Journal

Receipt for Odd Fellows Journal subscription stamped "PAID".

Receipt for regalia order from Edward Manufacturing Company (Atlanta, Ga.) to Marie Johnson, Household of Ruth (Blacksburg, Va.)

Report from the office of A.T. Shirley, District Grand Secretary on the state of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows State of Virginia.

Excerpts from the second ritual book of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, relating texts, hymns, passwords, and laws for lodges.

Catalog of regalia and supplies for the Odd Fellows, includes illustrations of ribbons, collars, banners, and pins.

Issue of The Quarterly Bulletin from the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows

The Virginia Republican Party Flyer is a list, titled "The Republican Ticket" and printed on newsprint, of the so-called " Lily Black" Republican ticket of 1921 (an African American offshoot of the Republican party). Sought-after offices include:…

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…