As many of you know, the Friends of East End Cemetery is ONE OF 40 NATIONAL WINNERS of a $25,000 grant from @StateFarm Neighborhood Assist®! We will use the funds for our #oralhistory initiative, which aims to capture stories of #AfricanAmerican Richmond that might otherwise be lost. This #project builds on #genealogical and #historical research we have conducted since 2013, when #cemetery restoration efforts began.
We could not have won without the tremendous #support of the community, in #Richmond and beyond. To express our gratitude to our supporters and to State Farm®, we invite you to celebrate with us on Saturday, November 2, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at #EastEndCemetery.
Light refreshments will be served. All activities will take place outside; bathroom facilities are limited. We encourage #visitors to carpool, as parking is tight at East End. There will be no #volunteer workday for this event. Please checkout the event schedule on our Facebook page. We hope to see you then! #rva #thisplacematters #thesestoriesmatter #africanamericancemetery #africanamericanhistoryeveryday #community #sfneighborhoodassist #celebration #thankyou
Following up on yesterday’s shared post about the amazing #MaryPeake. These are recent photographs of #ElmertonCemetery, where Ms. Peake is #buried, taken by @bxpnyc on a short trip back to #Hampton with @wokdocs. They were dismayed by the condition of the #cemetery, which had at least been mown periodically back in 2013–14. Neighbors told them that the Sheriff’s department had been doing a good job of maintaining Elmerton but that no one had been out there since a volunteer cleanup event over Memorial Day weekend. Pictured is Ms. Peake’s #headstone and family plot, engulfed in overgrowth, on August 24, 2019. The cemetery has qualified for state funding under Virginia’s Historic African American Cemeteries and Graves legislation — so what’s the story? #africanamericancemetery #thisplacematters @nmaahc
#repost @nmaahc
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Mary Peake, the daughter of a free woman of color and a white Englishman, started a #movement that led to the creation of @_hamptonu. She was educated at a school for free #AfricanAmericans in Alexandria, #Virginia, and went on to found Daughters of Zion, a benevolent society to help the poor and sick. She married a former slave named Thomas Peake in 1851. ⠀
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Some of the schoolchildren who Mary secretly taught recommended her to an agent from the #AmericanMissionaryAssociation who had come to the South to start a school for African-Americans who seized their freedom behind #Union lines. Peake went on to become the first #teacher hired at the AMA school, which formed the foundation for what is known today as #HamptonUniversity. #APeoplesJourney⠀
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📸 1. Mary Smith Peake; Courtesy Public Domain 2. Students studying agricultural sciences, Hampton University, ca 1899; Courtesy Library of Congress 3. A class in mathematical geography, ca 1899; Courtesy Library of Congress
