This Week in Virginia History

This week in 1814… President James and Dolley Madison and their slaves escape the White House as the British invade and burn Washington, DC. As first lady, Dolley Madison had been a much-celebrated hostess. Even today, she is known for rescuing a portrait of George Washington from the fire. But a firsthand account from one of the Madisons' slaves tells a different story.

This week in 1865… The University of Virginia names Charles Venable chair of the mathematics department. But his concerns extended beyond mathematics... For three and a half decades, Venable played a central role in constructing the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.

This week in 2017... White supremacists rally around the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville. One of them runs his car through a crowd of counter-protestors, killing one person and injuring at least 19 others.

This week in 1963... Eleven people were arrested in downtown Farmville for parading without a permit. They were demanding an end to segregation and that public schools reopen.