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In the News

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The East Marshall Street Well Project

In 1994 during the construction of the Kontos building on East Marshall Street in Richmond, Va., a well was discovered during excavation at the northeast corner of what had been historically known as Academy Square. Human remains and artifacts were removed from the well. Although covered by the media in 1994, the discovery remained largely unaddressed until awareness of the well’s history was included in Dr. Shawn Utsey’s documentary, “Until the Well Runs Dry,” which examined the issue of grave robbing and use of black cadavers in medical education during the 19th century.

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William & Mary to Host ASWAD, with Colonial Williamsburg Foundation as a Partner

An international association devoted to the study of the African diaspora comes to Williamsburg this fall, in observance of the 400th year since the arrival of the first Africans in British North America and the origins of American slavery.

Robert Trent Vinson
The Birthplace of American Democracy?

In August 1619, two milestone events happened in Jamestown, the first permanent colony in English North America.

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Lemon Project symposium focuses on 'Celebrating Legacies'

Continuing its powerful work in chronicling William & Mary’s history, the Lemon Project hosted its ninth annual spring symposium, “Celebrating Legacies, Constructing Futures: Four Hundred Years of Black Community and Culture,” on campus March 14-16.

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W&M Lemon Project symposium tied to 1619 anniversary

The event, titled “Celebrating Legacies, Constructing Futures: Four Hundred Years of Black Community and Culture,” will include a meeting of the Universities Studying Slavery consortium and a keynote address by Christy Coleman, chief executive officer of the American Civil War Museum, along with multiple panel discussions.

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The Lemon Project: A journey of reconciliation

As the long-term Lemon Project effort prepares for the next chapter, a Board of Visitors resolution apologizes for W&M’s history of owning slaves and racial discrimination.

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Nikki Giovanni headlines Lemon Project Symposium

Giovanni, a distinguished university professor at Virginia Tech who has authored more than 27 poetry collections, urged her audience to acknowledge that the first slaves played a crucial, often ignored, part in the formation of America.

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Africans, Native Americans, and the English in 1619 Virginia

Historians discussed the arrival of the first African slaves to Virginia in 1619 and their encounters and cultural exchanges with Native Americans and English settlers. The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, the Middle Passage Project of William & Mary and the Virginia Commonwealth’s 2019 Commemoration co-hosted the symposium.

Kluge Fellow Joanne Braxton (right) with chief of Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia Lynette Allston. Photo by Rebecca Ann Parker.
Kluge Center Convenes Symposium on 1619's Cultural Exchange

The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress will convene a symposium, titled “1619 and The Making of America,” that will bring together respected scholars to explore the intricate encounters of Africans, Europeans and native people during this significant period in America’s history.

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Upcoming Kluge Center Symposium features W&M scholars

Thomas Jefferson Award 2018 honoree Joanne Braxton, the Kluge Center’s David B. Larson Fellow in Health and Spirituality, will be joined by W&M Associate Professor Robert Trent Vinson and Cassandra Newby-Alexander Ph.D. ’92, director of the Roberts Center for African Diaspora Studies at Norfolk State University, to discuss “1619 and The Making of America.” This free, public event is Feb. 23 at the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C.

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African Burial Ground Project: paradigm for cooperation?

"15,000 ancestors of African-America left their whole bodies to mark time for nearly 300 years. The discovery of this burial ground in downtown Manhattan materially confronted us with a decision: whether to realize our capacity to disregard these remains, sanctify them, or restore their stories to memory, whichever advocacy was the most powerful."