Episode Summary:

The Federal Writers’ Project set out to create a series of books that held up a mirror to America, and chronicled communities that had long been ignored. Howard University professor Sterling Brown led the agency’s effort to document African American history in a series of books. In Virginia, chemistry professor Roscoe Lewis led a small team to produce the first book in that national series, titled The Negro in Virginia.  Lewis recruited a dozen Black writers and researchers across the state for a pioneering effort that recorded interviews with nearly 300 formerly enslaved people. They navigated a backlash from state editors and local officials. Against all odds, their book on Black life became a national Book-of-the-Month Club selection, and a milestone on the path to the Civil Rights movement.

Speakers:

Audrey Davis, historian

Julian Hayter, historian

Gregg Kimball, historian

Kiki Petrosino, poet

Links and Resources:

Photo essay about East End Cemetery by Kiki Petrosino and Brian Palmer in VQR

“Unmarked” documentary

Virginia Humanities Q&A with David A. Taylor

Washington Post article on Roscoe Lewis and The Negro in Virginia

Alexandria Black History Museum

Reading List:

The Negro in Virginia (Library of Virginia)

White Blood by Kiki Petrosino

Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers’ Project by Catherine A. Stewart

To Walk About in Freedom by Carole Emberton

The Dream is Lost by Julian Hayter 

Credits:

Host: Chris Haley

Director: Andrea Kalin

Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello

Writer: David A. Taylor

Editors: Ethan Oser and Julie Chalhoub

Story Editor: Michael May

Additional Voices: Skip Coblyn, Sherry Carter-Brownell, Robert Mirabello, James Mirabello and Danielle Nance

Featuring music and archival material from:

Pond5

Library of Congress 

National Archives 

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Produced with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Virginia Humanities.

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