The Silver Leaf Society formed a cemetery association on November 13, 1885 which then established the cemetery. Members of the Society paid regular fees to secure a burial site, casket, and funeral service. It is not clear why, but by the mid-1900s the cemetery was abandoned and largely forgotten. The city then used it as a landfill. Then in 1976, local resident Walter Sanford wrote to the city requesting the the cemetery be mowed and he also noted that he saw three headstones. In the 1980s and early 1990s, plans were in development to build a homeless shelter at the site. Archaeologists were hired in 1990 to survey and excavate the property and they confirmed the cemetery's existence. The plan to build the shelter was scrapped and the park was established instead. Twenty burials were found and six headstones were identified to be in their original location.

The sculpture group "Truths That Rise From the Roots Remembered" was created by artist Jerome Meadows. 

Alexandria African American Heritage Park

More Info

Click to read the 1992 draft archaeological report about the cemetery

Established on June 17, 1995, the Alexandria African American Heritage Park honors the contributions of African-Americans in Alexandria. Located just to the east of Alexandria National Cemetery, it includes a one-acre 19th-century African-American cemetery, several sculptures including the sculpture group called "Truths That Rise From the Roots Remembered", a wetland, and a brick walking path. The cemetery was created in 1885 by an African-American organization called the Silver Leaf Society.   

This tour starts at the city of Alexandria's African American Heritage Park and includes a variety of sites from the antebellum period to the present. The tour includes several landmark institutions such as schools and churches, sites related to the Civil Rights Movement, homes and businesses of prominent African Americans, and sites connected to the domestic slave trade. The tour concludes at the city's museum of African American history. The tour continues to grow each year as local organizations add entries.

African American History of Alexandria

Joseph Bruin was a slave trader that bought the then slave jail as a way to hold pending slaves before the transaction. Bruin, however, made a life altering discovery when he jailed the Edmondson sisters who would be the focus of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel "the Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin". The Edmondson sisters were the sisters of Samuel Edmondson, one of the orchestrators of the Pearl escape that sent 77 slaves to freedom in Washington. The Pearl escape was the largest slave escape in history in which Edmondson and his colleagues purchased the Pearl and then freed the 77 slaves&nbsp;in one night&nbsp;to escape down the Potomac River and to freedom. The escape is credited with keeping the abolitionist movement going and starting many of the events that would come thereafter.&nbsp;The slaves would, however, be caught at the end of the river and sold in New Orleans which is where Bruin bought the Edmondson's. Bruin had a fascination of&nbsp;sorts with the sisters which he envisaged they could be sold as prostitutes in New Orleans for a high price. The Edmondson girl's father tried to raise funds for his daughter which led him to contact with Stowe's father and thus Stowe. Stowe knew of the jail and it became the focus of her book. Edmondson purchased his daughters out of the trade but Bruin's name lived on because of Stowe's&nbsp;writings.&nbsp;Bruin's jail became known as a&nbsp;"monument to oppression"&nbsp;and he became a "model of the greedy slave trader".3After Bruin's capture the jail was converted into a courthouse and it is not open to the public today.

This historic home was once the property of Joseph Bruin, a slave trader who held hundreds of human beings in the basement of this home as they awaited transportation and sale to slave plantations throughout the South. Bruin purchased this home in 1844 and acted as a middle man until his capture by Union troops during the Civil War. Harriet Beecher Stowe referenced this slave pen as a reference within her books "The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin" and the prequel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The jail was most famous for holding the Edmondson Sisters who almost escaped to freedom aboard the Pearl. These women were among 77 slaves who attempted to evade their owners by boarding the ship which was piloted by abolitionists. The building served as the Fairfax County Courthouse for a short time following Bruin's capture by Union troops and was later sold and used as a private home. 

Bruin's Slave Jail and statue of Emily and Mary Edmonson

Prior to the Civil War, this home was the site of one of the most prosperous slave-trading businesses in the region. At that time, slave pens and markets were located in nearly every town in the South, but a relatively small number of slave trading firms conducted the majority of transactions. Between the 1830s and the end of the Civil War, thousands of men, women, and children passed through slave pens that were part of this building. These individuals were sold near this site and transferred to plantations throughout the South.&nbsp;<div>Around the 1830s, Isaac Franklin and John Armfield, the men who leased the building, were selling about 1,000 people a year, making their operation one of the largest, if not the largest slave-trading operations in the United States until 1836.&nbsp; </div>The History of Armfield and FranklinIsaac Franklin was working as a slave trader at least as early as 1819 in Mississippi. Contemporary sources indicate that Franklin was naturally gifted in “the art of buying slaves,” and in 1824 he met a like-minded stagecoach driver by the name of John Armfield. Franklin taught Armfield everything he knew about the trade, and in 1828, the two became partners in what would soon become one of the largest slave trading firms in the United States.&nbsp;Deciding that Alexandria would be an ideal location to conduct their business, they leased the building at 1315 Duke Street and converted the basement into a slave pen. Franklin managed satellite&nbsp;offices in New Orleans and Natchez, while Armfield stayed and managed affairs at the office in Alexandria. The two men sold thousands of souls into bondage and amassed an enormous fortune in the process. By 1836, the two decided to retire and sold the Alexandria office along with other property, including shops, irons, and human beings.&nbsp;The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was made illegal in 1808, and for those who violated this law, it was punishable by death in 1820. At the same time, the need for slaves in the Deep South grew tremendously which led to the growth of the domestic slave trade (the sale of slaves within the United States remained legal until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865).&nbsp;From 1828 until the Civil War, an entire block in Alexandria’s Old Time was essentially a pen for a number of slave trade operators. At the building at 1315 Duke Street, Isaac Franklin and John Armfield sold slaves from 1828 to 1836, and during this time, they made an estimate of $1 million and $500,000 (in pre-Civil War dollars) respectively.&nbsp;To attract slave traders from Virginia and Maryland, Armfield placed advertisements in various newspapers. After purchasing slaves for a low price, he held them in the slave pen until he could arrange transport and/or sale in Franklin, New Orleans, or Natchez, Mississippi. Transport either included one of Armfield and Franklin’s ships or through a 1,000-mile overland walk in slave groups, known as a “coffies.”After selling the business in 1836, various slave traders took control of the pen, but when Union troops marched through Alexandria during the Civil War, the site was used to house the soldiers, ex-slaves escaping to the North, and Confederate prisoners. For the rest of the 19th century, it served as a boarding house, apartment building, and private residence.&nbsp;Acquisition by the Urban LeagueIn 1978, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Later, in 1996, the house was sold to the Northern Virginia Urban League (NOVUL) purchased the building for its operations, which included scholarships, leadership training, financial management skills, and more. The Freedom House Museum was opened in 2008 to commemorate the thousands who passed through the site’s walls before the Civil War. Although the museum carries a harrowing topic, it’s mission is to leave visitors with spirits uplifted and smiles in their hearts. Visitors to the museum report profound feelings when they tour the basement of the building, where thousands of women, men, and children were held as the awaited transport, sale, and separation from family members.

Once the home of the largest slave-trading company in Virginia, this historic building is now home to the Freedom House Museum. Built between 1810 and 1820, the home is most famous for holding the offices of Isaac Franklin and John Armfield, the owners of the largest slave trading firm in the region. Demonstrating the way history and historical interpretations change over time, the building is now owned by the Urban League and home to a museum that teaches about the evils of slavery and the slave trade. 

The museum is dedicated to Henry Louis Bailey, a slave held in the building's basement who later returned to Alexandria and established schools and a church. The museum offers numerous exhibits about the slave trade, life as a slave, and other exhibits related to slavery and freedom for people of African descent in America. On October 16th, 1979, it was designated on the Virginia Landmark Register, and on June 2nd, 1978, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Freedom House Museum (Former office of slave trader Franklin and Armfield)

The escaped slaves who worked for the Union Army in 1861 and 1862 posed a legal quandary for the government, as the law suggested that they were the property of rebelling slaveholders as the Union refused to acknowledge the legality of secession. In the early days of the war, some slaves were returned to the Confederacy. Recognizing the way slave labor helped the Confederate economy, Union military officials declared that escaped slaves were ‘contraband.' As a result, they declared that Union leaders were under no obligation to return slaves to their masters. For this reason, the African American population of Alexandria doubled in the first year of the war.Many of the escaped slaves arrived in poor health. While working for the army or searching for work around Alexandria, they also became malnourished. The already high mortality rate was exacerbated by unsanitary housing as many were placed in overcrowded barracks of left to create their own shantytowns from any materials they could find.The land used to develop the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery was seized from a pro-Confederate owner in 1864 and used as a burial (or re-burial) ground for African Americans in Alexandria. Black soldiers were laid to rest at this site instead of the Soldier’s Cemetery (now Alexandria National Cemetery) where white troops were buried. When African American troops demanded that Black servicemen buried in the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery be given the honor of having the Soldier’s Cemetery, their bodies were disinterred and taken to receive a soldier's burial in a separate section of that cemetery.  The Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery was only in use for five years, with the last recorded burial in 1869. Unofficial burials continued to take place at the cemetery. A gas station and an office building existed on the property at various points in history. As a result, the graves of many African Americans were disturbed in the past century. Around 1800 people are buried here, with about one-third of those graves intact.In 1987, local historians and concerned citizens demonstrated a need to preserve the area after historical research rediscovered the cemetery during the planning of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge construction. In 1997, residents held a memorial service for those buried in the cemetery. The City of Alexandria created memorial park in 2014. This park contains markers that tell the history of the area and honor the African Americans who escaped slavery and aided the Union war effort. At the center of the park stands a statue entitled "The Path of Thorns and Roses" by Mario Chiodo, and bronze plaques give the known names of those buried in the cemetery.

Throughout the Civil War, enslaved Americans fled to Union-controlled areas and many found work as servants assisting the war effort in places like Alexandria. Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation which declared that all slaves in rebel-held territory were free, escaping slaves were commonly referred to as "contrabands." Although this reference likened people to property, the term derives from supportive Union Generals who took the initiative to exploit the unclear legal status of escaping Black men and women in the same way they might treat a rifle or mule that could assist the rebellion if returned to the South. As more "contraband" humans entered Alexandria, some of them succumbed to disease. In response, local officials set aside this land for the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery.

Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial

In 1830, a small plot of land was bought for African American members of the Trinity Methodist Church in Alexandria. A large number of members of the Trinity Methodist congregation felt that the African American members of the congregation should have a space of their own, and as a result, the plot was used to construct a separate chapel. Construction on what was known locally as Davis Chapel began not long after the purchase of the plot of land, but the Nat Turner Rebellion stalled construction until 1834. That same year, the Davis Chapel was completed. As the church grew, the congregation and leaders within the church found that there was a need for a Sunday school and a “secular” school, and as a result, the church established two different school sessions for African Americans in need of education of all kinds. The school would continue to operate until 1846, when Alexandria was made a part of Virginia instead of Washington, DC, thereby outlawing the education of African Americans.

When Reverend Davis aligned his beliefs with the Southern Methodist Church, the church congregation decided to change the name of the church to Roberts Chapel instead, so as to not align themselves with the support of slavery. After the occupation of Alexandria by Federal troops and the end of the war, Roberts Memorial would continue to offer its services as a church and educational center for its congregation and community for years to come. On June 17th, 1986, it was designated on the Virginia Landmark Register, and on November 6th, 1986, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Davis Chapel, known also as the Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church, is a historic chapel in Alexandria, Virginia. Built in 1834, it is the oldest African American church in the city of Alexandria, and as such was related to early efforts for African American education in the state. Today, the church continues to serve as a church, but also as a center for civic engagement in Alexandria’s African American community. On June 17th, 1986, it was designated on the Virginia Landmark Register, and on November 6th, 1986, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Davis Chapel

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The location of
this property eludes to its significance in African American history. In the
mid 1800s, the free Black community of Alexandria was rapidly increasing. Within
the city of Alexandria, the neighborhood of Hayti was founded in the 1800s on
the 400th block of South Royal Street. Its name was derived from the only country with a successful slave revolt in the western hemisphere up to this point, Haiti. The
property in this neighborhood was sold to free African American families by the
Quakers; George Seaton was to become the owner of this specific Alexandrian
property in 1866.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; In 1822, George
Lewis Seaton was born a free Black man in Alexandria. He was well-known in the
community as an architect and master carpenter, responsible for the
construction of several buildings throughout the town around 1850s into the
1860s. Seaton grew to become an important leader within Alexandria, respected
by both whites and Blacks in the area. In 1869, George L. Seaton became the
first African American on the Virginia General Assembly and devoted his
position to advancing life for the Black community and breaking racial
barriers. He would go on to build two schools for the African American children
in Alexandria and served as a founding member of the Colored YMCA, the Colored
Building Association, and the Old Fellows Society. These were among the major
accomplishments Seaton would accomplish for the community.&nbsp; &nbsp; From 1866 until
his death in 1881, the property on 404 South Royal Street served as the home of George Lewis Seaton. He dedicated his life laboring to improve the lives of
African American within Alexandria, leaving his mark on the city. George L.
Seaton’s family continued to live in the house long after he passed, and the
property has undergone many alterations since. &nbsp;Today, the house is a Virginia Historic
Landmark that stands in memory of a man devoted to his city and a better life
for African Americans.

      The George L. Seaton House is located in Alexandria, Virginia, and resides in the second oldest African American neighborhood in this area, Hayti. This two-story brick building was built around 1861-1866. The property is named after prominent African-American community leader George Lewis Seaton, who purchased the house on April 14, 1866. Historical artifacts representing the community of Hayti have been discovered by archaeologists. The property, along with its artifacts, resemble the life of free Blacks in Alexandria in the mid-19th century. In 2004, this property was recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.

George Lewis Seaton House

The Alexandria Academy is a three-story brick building. The original plan for the building was to operate three different &nbsp;kinds of teaching methodologies. On&nbsp;the first
floor, students who were able to afford tuition were instructed in&nbsp;grammar, arithmetic, and physical sciences. A
floor above, tuition-paying students learned Latin and classical Greek. The third floor held
the Free School, which provided basic skills as well as some of the more advanced lessons that were taught on the other floors.&nbsp;&nbsp;


George Washington took great interest in the Free School and
contributed 50 pounds each year- an amount that&nbsp;covered expenses for about twenty
students. Washington was involved with the free school during his entire lifetime, and left four thousand dollars to it in his will. In 1812, the Free School moved to a
new location. In its place, the academy operated a&nbsp;school for African Americans. At
that time, Alexandria was part of the District of Columbia. After the&nbsp;city became part of Virginia in 1846, however, state laws barring the education of both freed and enslaved African Americans required that the classroom for Black students be discontinued.&nbsp;

During the&nbsp;Civil War, the building hosted&nbsp;both a school and hospital for former slaves, offering free tuition for those who could not afford to pay. The
Alexandria Academy was absorbed by the Alexandria Public School System in 1884. The building was&nbsp;used for both educational and administrative purposes
until 1995. In that year,&nbsp;the Historic Alexandria Foundation purchased and&nbsp;restored the building. &nbsp;As a result,&nbsp;the building still plays a role in the education of all Alexandrians, as the building used by many of the city's&nbsp;cultural and educational
institutions.&nbsp;

George Washington and other residents of Alexandria endowed the Alexandria Academy as a subscription school that would also provide free education for as many poor and orphaned children as might be accommodated on the schools upper floor. The majority of students paid modest tuition and the school was open to boys and girls alike. Years later, the academy hosted a school for African Americans. However, the organization discontinued their support for Black education in 1847 in response to a special law passed by the state of Virginia that forbid teaching African Americans to read-even those who were not enslaved. During the Civil War, the building became home to a small hospital and a s school for African Americans. 

Alexandria Academy

The Odd Fellows was a communal organization which had roots
in England, dating back to the late eighteenth century. Few communal
organizations like the Odd Fellows allowed for African American membership, but
the Odd Fellows held no such restriction. The Organization founded a chapter in
Alexandria in 1846, making it the second lodge in Alexandria to allow African
American members, the first being a Masonic lodge. After the American Civil War,
it became legal for secret societies to meet, and as a result, several
prominent members of the Odd Fellows chapter in Alexandria decided it was time
for the chapter to have a meeting hall of its own.

The members found a building in 1869, which was constructed
in 1864, that suited them and seemed as though it might make for a quality meeting
hall. They commissioned master carpenter George Seaton to make additions and
enlargements to the home in order to make it into a meeting hall, and in 1870,
the meeting hall was completed and ready for use with the help of funding from
the Freedmen’s Bureau. Though the hall allowed society members of all races,
genders, and secret organizations, it remained particularly important to
African Americans, being one of the earliest in Alexandria to allow them access
to a communal organization. On September 10th, 2003, it was
designated on the Virginia Landmark Register, and on January 16th,
2004, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The hall still
currently serves the Alexandria chapter of the Odd Fellows.

The Odd Fellows Hall is a historic hall of the Odd Fellows society, this one located in Alexandria, Virginia. The original building was built in 1864, and in 1870, it was expanded upon to reach the size the hall currently is. Additionally, the hall is particularly interesting because it allowed African Americans access and membership in the organization, where other social organizations of the time would not. On September 10th, 2003, it was designated on the Virginia Landmark Register, and on January 16th, 2004, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Odd Fellows Hall

Dr. Albert Johnson was born on November 16th, 1866 in Lynchburg, Virginia to two former slaves. Johnson had access to public education in Lynchburg, and he took every effort to attend all the way through high school. Upon graduating in 1886, Johnson taught at Lynchburg schools until 1889, when he began studying at Harvard University’s Medical College in Washington, DC. He graduated from Harvard and received his medical license in 1892, and he moved back to practice in Lynchburg that same year. He did not remain long, however, and decided to move to Alexandria in 1894. Johnson fell in love with Maude Chinn in 1895, and he proposed to her. As they were preparing for the wedding, Maude fell fatally ill, and the two hurriedly married. Maude died soon after.

In 1896, Johnson purchased a home on Duke Street, and lived by himself until he married again in 1899 to Sarah Morton. They would go on to have two children and live in the home as a family. In 1900, Johnson was listed as the only African-American doctor in Alexandria, and for a long while, he was one of very few in the city for decades. During his time practicing in Alexandria, Johnson used the downstairs portion of the home as his personal office. The Johnsons remained in the home until 1941, when they sold it to Annie Rose. Several decades later, the owner of the home brought the house under serious renovations in 1974. On September 10th, 2003, it was designated on the Virginia Landmark Register, and on January 16th, 2004, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.&nbsp;

The Dr. Albert Johnson House is a historical home in Alexandria, Virginia, in the Bottoms neighborhood. Built at some point during the 19th century, the building is noted for being the home of African American Physician, Dr. Albert Johnson. It underwent structural renovation in 1974. On September 10th, 2003, it was designated on the Virginia Landmark Register, and on January 16th, 2004, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. 

Dr. Albert Johnson House

The
three founders of Alfred Street Baptist Church were members of Alexandria’s First
Baptist Church, an integrated congregation founded in 1803. These members of the congregation resisted the growing&nbsp;restrictions and divisions between white and Black members by&nbsp;forming their own organization, first known as&nbsp;the Colored Baptist Society. The new congregation leased
a plot of land on Alfred Street and built a small wooden church in 1818. The church was originally named First Colored Baptist Church.

Two
years after its construction, the church started a Sunday School for both
children and adults. It also opened a school for teaching academic subjects&nbsp;in the&nbsp;1830s. However, opposition by area whites who feared the consequences of Black&nbsp;education led to the&nbsp;closure of the school shortly after its establishment.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

As was the case for&nbsp;many large buildings of the time, the church was used as a hospital during the
Civil War. The congregation
appointed its first Black minister during the war years&nbsp;and changed its name
to Alfred Street Baptist Church following the war.

The current&nbsp;two-story brick structure was completed in 1885. The new building included&nbsp;both a gable roof and a Romanesque
Revival facade as well as&nbsp;archways and stained-glass
windows that were added shortly after the building's completion.&nbsp;Further renovations have taken place
over the years and, in 1994 extensive renovations to the&nbsp;interior of the
building were completed.&nbsp;

Home to Alexandria’s oldest African American congregation, Alfred Street Baptist Church has long served as a center of the religious, educational, and social life of the city's Black community. The church was founded in 1818 in the Bottoms, a neighborhood that was home to many former slaves and free people of color prior to the Civil War. Alfred Street Baptist Church was first known as First Colored Baptist Church.

Alfred Street Baptist Church

The significance of the houses comes from the Moses Hepburn himself.
&nbsp;Born a slave in 1809 and freed seven
years later, Hepburn overcame tremendous racial difficulties and became a
successful entrepreneur in the antebellum city through his ownership and
development of various residential and commercial properties.&nbsp;His father
was a wealthy man, white merchant and member of City Council. Esther, his
African American mother, was enslaved to his father in 1816 when she and her
children, including Moses, were sold to her free Black sister, Harriet Jackson.
Eleven days later, Harriet freed Esther and her children.

After receiving an education in Pennsylvania, Moses became successful
businessman and served as a civic leader in the community. He was the one of
the nine founding members of Davis Chapel (1834) as well as the first president
of the church’s missionary society. He also exhibited a great cconsern for the
education of Alexandria’s Blacks and served as a teacher at the Sabbath School
of Roberts Memorial Church, the successor to Davis Chapel. In 1847, Alexandria
was retroceded to Virginia, which forbade the education of African Americans.
As a result, the family decided to leave, relocating to West Chester,
Pennsylvania.

The Moses Hepburn Row Houses stands today as a testimony of
and a tribute to the business acumen and leadership of one of Alexandria’s
remarkable early-nineteenth-century free African American citizens. &nbsp;

The four townhouses were built in 1850 by Moses Hepburn, the wealthiest free African American in Alexandria. He was born as a slave in 1809 and freed seven years later.  He was also one of the nine founders of Davis Chapel, later Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church, the oldest African American church building in Alexandria (1834). The houses were constructed somewhere after he purchased the property in 1850. Located in the middle of the block, they are relatively modest in scale when compared to the other existing houses on the street.  
The houses were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

The Moses Hepburn Row Houses

In the 1930s, segregation reigned in Alexandria and throughout the South and beyond. In addition to schools, restaurants, and other places of public accommodation, many&nbsp;libraries barred Black residents from entering the building-effectively barring millions from access to books in an era when most Americans depended on libraries for reading material. Samuel Wilbert Tucker, an Alexandria native, organized a movement to challenge this exclusion.&nbsp;As Alexandria's only high school was an all-white school, Tucker had attended and graduated from a high school in&nbsp;Washington D.C. At the age of 20, he&nbsp;graduated from Howard University and passed Virginia's bar exam. In March&nbsp;1939, Tucker was not&nbsp;allowed entry to the Alexandria Library (another white-only establishment). Tucker took the case to court and discovered that the city's solution was to built an all-Black library, which Tucker knew from experience&nbsp;would not offer the same access to services and information. In response to this injustice, Tucker&nbsp;worked with others in Alexandria's&nbsp;Black community and organized a group of&nbsp;young men who were&nbsp;willing to challenge the city's policy of segregation, even if it meant that they would&nbsp;be arrested.&nbsp; On the day of the protest, August 21, 1939, only five men arrived:&nbsp;Otto Tucker, 22; William “Buddy” Evans, 19; Edward Gaddis, 21; Morris L. Murray, 22; and Clarence “Buck” Strange, 21. One by one, these men entered the library and asked to register for a library card. When refused, the protester picked up a book, took a seat, and read quietly. Five men at five different tables read their books without causing a stir. Each of the men had prepared for the event. Knowing that they might be photographed and arrested, each wore&nbsp;their best clothing and resolved to act&nbsp;politely in the face of insults. The library staff called the police (Tucker, as planned, was waiting for the police's arrival) and the police soon arrived and arrested the five men for disorderly conduct (as the men's politeness had an impact and the police had difficulties finding grounds for a conviction). Samuel Tucker had a photographer waiting outside to take a photo, and he quickly arranged for the men's release from custody. The charges were never dismissed, nor were they ever brought back to court. The case essentially disappeared from the record without ever reaching a formal resolution.&nbsp;The story was largely ignored outside of Black communities. The Alexandria Library Board, in response, promised to build the Blacks-only Robert H. Robinson Library and hire an African American librarian. Tucker wrote a passionate letter in response. "I refuse and will always refuse to accept a card to be used at the library to be constructed and operated at Alfred and Wythe Streets," he wrote,&nbsp;&nbsp;"in lieu of [a] card to be used at the existing library on Queen Street for which I have made application." Tucker went on to become a leading civil rights attorney on behalf of the NAACP, winning many cases against segregated schools during the 1960s, including the infamous case in Prince Edward County where school officials closed all public schools in order to avoid the court's order to desegregate.1

In August 1939, attorney Samuel W. Tucker orchestrated what appears to be the earliest organized civil rights sit-in at this library. At that time, Alexandria was a city of 33,000 and had only one public library. Although local Black residents vote and paid their taxes (some of which went to financing the library after it had been built), they were denied entry to the white-only library. Attorney Samuel W. Tucker was 26 in the summer of 1939, and to protest the library's white-only policy, he prepared a select group of men for an act of civil disobedience. On Friday, August 21, 1939, Tucker's group entered the public library despite the library's policy of only serving white patrons. They were denied service and told to leave, but they sat down and read until the police arrived and arrested the men for trespassing. The situation was virtually ignored by most newspapers at the time, and Samuel Tucker continued fighting against segregation and intolerance thereafter, becoming a prominent voice in the Civil Rights era. He later served as the lead lawyer for the NAACP and argued several cases before the the Supreme Court.

Sit-in at Alexandria's White-Only Public Library, 1939

The Alexandria Black History Museum opened in 1983 to the public under the name Alexandria Black History Research Center and was completed in 1989 as a museum. The Museum's main initiative is for "preserving the history of Alexandria’s African-American citizens, as well as providing a forum for issues of concern to all African Americans". The Museum is broken into three parts, the museum which incorporates all the local history, the Watson Reading Room that provides an area to learn about African American culture, and the African American Heritage Park that "offers a place for celebration, commemoration, and quiet reflection", according to the City of Alexandria site. The Museum's greatest attraction is the Robert Robinson Library which is the site of the segregated library resulting from a "sit-in". In 1939,&nbsp;six&nbsp;children, an attorney as their organizer, engaged in a "sit-in" at the Alexandria Public Library in protest to their segregation policy. This was the alleged first "sit-in" protest in the United States. The attorney, Samuel Tucker, was an advocate for African American rights and defended the&nbsp;children in court. A segregated library was established as a result in the very place the Alexandria Black History Museum sits. Another notable fact about the museum is it sits in the Parker-Gray Historical District of the city, named after the only high school in the area that African Americans could enroll in Alexandria before 1965. The Parker-Gray School collection is also a part of many collections of the museum including African American churches, African Objects, Moss Kendrix collection, documents, photographs, and some recently added pieces from the Obama presidential campaign. All if not most of the collections highlight the local history in Alexandria.

The Alexandria Black History Museum was established in the 1980s as a place of historical significance to African American culture in Alexandria, Virginia. The museum most notably contains the Robert Robinson Library, the end product of the first alleged "sit-in" in America. The museum also contains the Watson Reading Room and the African American Heritage Park. While serving as a museum the mission is to "enrich the lives of Alexandria’s residents and visitors, to foster tolerance and understanding among all cultures and to stimulate appreciation for the diversity of the African American experience", according to the official website. 

African American History of Alexandria

Alexandria African American Heritage Park

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information