NewsA Song by Any Other Name
What’s in a name? In the case of the now-retired state song of Virginia, a lot. The tale of the twisting, somewhat torturous history of “Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” tells us a lot about Lost Cause mythology, half-hearted attempts to erase the stain of racism, and what true reconciliation requires. “Carry Me Back […]
NewsThe Virginia Writers Project
By Nora Pehrson Just last week, Congress approved the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP), with it designating $135 million in federal funds to the National Endowment for the …
NewsThe Remarkable Journey of Elizabeth Keckly
Few stories in Encyclopedia Virginia are more dramatic than that of Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly. Born into slavery in Dinwiddie Courthouse, in the Piedmont region of Virginia, during the presidency of James Monroe, by the time that Abraham Lincoln entered the White House in 1861, not only was Keckly a free woman, but she was also Washington, D.C.’s most […]
NewsThis Small Garden Is Half My World
Celebrating the birthday of Anne Spencer, a writer of the Harlem Renaissance who lived and worked in segregated Lynchburg, Virginia
NewsBernard Cohen and the Legacy of Loving
Bernard Cohen, one of the two lawyers who successfully took on one of the last laws underpinning legal segregation in the landmark Loving v. Virginia case, died on October 12… Read More»
NewsEV Election Edition
The air is crisp, and the first hints of color are showing in the Blue Ridge, which means that pumpkin spice lattes and the fifty-ninth U.S. presidential election must be… Read More»
News“Lonely Days and Fearful Nights:” The Norfolk Yellow Fever Epidemic
At its best, history opens a window in time that helps illuminate the past and the present. Such is Encyclopedia Virginia’s new entry on the long-forgotten Norfolk and Portsmouth Yellow Fever Epidemic… Read More»
NewsShort Film About Virginia Slave Dwellings Receives Regional Emmy
Virginia Humanities announced today that the film, Mapping Virginia’s Slave Dwellings, has been awarded a National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter Emmy Award in the category “Historical / Cultural: Program Feature.” …
NewsTelling the Whole Story of Woman Suffrage
As Encyclopedia Virginia director Peter Hedlund recently noted here on the EV blog, we are committed to revising existing entries to eliminate racial bias and better reflect new historical understandings of key moments in Virginia history.… Read More»
NewsWhat Comes After?
The old Style Council song “Walls Come Tumbling Down” has been running through my head all week as we watch the commemorative landscape of Richmond being re-made in real time:… Read More»
NewsTackling the Roots of Racism in Virginia
Working on an encyclopedia day in and day out for more than a decade is rewarding and sometimes depressing. It’s rewarding to think that—if you are doing your job responsibly—the… Read More»
NewsSymbols Matter
It was impossible not to feel the weight of history when Gov. Ralph Northam announced that the state-owned statue of Robert E. Lee that towers over Richmond, physically and emotionally,… Read More»
