Participant Biographies
"The Slave Dwelling Project: Ten Years Later"
Joseph McGill, Jr.
Joseph McGill, Jr. is a history consultant for Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, SC and the founder of The Slave Dwelling Project, Inc. Sleeping in extant slave dwellings, this project has brought much needed attention to these often neglected structures that are vitally important to the American built environment. Prior to his current position, McGill was a field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation working to revitalize the Sweet Auburn commercial district in Atlanta, GA and to develop a management plan for Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area. McGill served as the Executive Director of the African American Museum located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. McGill is the former Director of History and Culture at Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina. McGill was also employed by the National Park Service, serving as a Park Ranger at Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston, South Carolina. McGill is a native of Kingstree, South Carolina. He is a graduate of Kingstree Senior High School. Upon graduating from High School he enlisted into the United States Air Force. McGill also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Professional English from South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina. He is married to the former Vilarin Mozee and they have one daughter, Jocelyn Mozee McGill.
Plenary Panel: “Entering the Past: The Daily Experience of Black Women Interpreters”
Eola Dance, Chief of Resources Management at Colonial National Historical Park, moderator
Dance is a 19 year employee of the National Park Service and currently serves as the Supervisor of Resource Stewardship and Science at Colonial National Historical Park. She received a BA in history from Southern University A & M College in 2001. Eola has served the NPS in many roles, including Regional Cultural Anthropologist, Chief of Resources Management and Visitor Services, District Manager, Site Manager, and Park Ranger. A 2015 graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design, Eola earned an MA in Historic Preservation having focused her research on “Climate Change and the Management of Cultural Resources in the Chesapeake Bay Region.” In 2016, Eola expanded her studies to include Environmental Policy at the George Washington University as a Roger Kennedy NPS Fellow. Eola is currently a doctoral student at Howard University in the History Program with a focus on the Colonial Era, women's history and the African American Experience.
Brenda Parker, African American Interpretation and Special Programs Coordinator, Mount Vernon
Brenda Parker began her acting career with children’s theatre in the Richmond area over twenty years ago. In Northern Virginia, her stage musical productions have won her both nominations and awards. In her current position at George Washington’s Mount Vernon she finds purpose and passion as a Historic Character Interpreter. Her primary interpretive role of Caroline Branham, an enslaved chambermaid, allows her to interact with over one million visitors. Brenda has researched and written monologues and two special programs—Mate Masie, a musical history, and Freedom Skies, about the 1801 Manumission of Washington’s enslaved persons. She has a solid social media imprint on YouTube and Facebook portraying an Enslaved Woman for Townsend. Brenda always counts the weighty blessing of giving voice to marginalized and forgotten people. It is her desire to foremost educate, empower and bring understanding. When we know better, we should do better.
Deirdre Jones '08, Programming Lead Actor Interpreter, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Deirdre Jones is from Richmond, VA. She is a 2008 graduate of William & Mary with a BA degree in Theatre and began employment at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in June 2008 as an Actor Interpreter. At Colonial Williamsburg, she performs in various scripted and unscripted scenes about the 18th century. Currently her position is Programming Lead Actor interpreter.
Valarie Holmes is from New Jersey. She attended college at Rutgers University and graduated from Hampton Institute with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. Valarie worked eight years at Newport News Shipbuilding as a buyer and received a Master’s degree in Performing Arts from Regent University. Valarie was honored as the Outstanding Graduate in the College of Communication and the Arts Institute of Performing Arts in May of 1991. She was nominated Best Actress by Portfolio Magazine for her portrayal of Margaret in James Baldwin’s “Amen Corner.” She received the Women in American History Award - 2015 from the Williamsburg Chapter, National Society of DAR. Valarie Holmes portrays Women, some enslaved and some free during various periods of the history of our country, in and near Colonial Williamsburg. She creates roles with the mission to portray with dignity, the complexity of life of enslaved and free African American women. Her characters exhibit determination, courage and faith, despite individual bondage, fracturing of their families, to ensure that their families and communities thrive.
Panel 1. "Not Everybody Knows My Name: Negotiating Identities for Black Women"
Michelle Harris
Dr. Harris is a compassionate motivator who has coached hundreds of women into life-altering breakthroughs and deep introspection that propels them into “anew” way of existence. She is the founder and CEO of Anew Health Solutions PLLC, a community-driven, self-care safe space for Christian women who need a spiritual refill after pouring everything they have into other people. She has authored two books, of Healing From Invisible Wounds and The Stress Factor and stands as not only an expert on stress management but she also provides holistic counseling and life coaching to ensure her clients achieve mental, physical and spiritual wellness! As a wellness coach, doctor of behavioral science licensed clinical social worker and minister with more than 15 years of experience, she supports Christian individuals and families in their quest to unlock themselves from the mental chains and invisible wounds of anxiety, suicide, depression and stress
Anjail M. Haqq
Anjail Haqq MSW, is a Mental Health Therapist specializing in treatment for individuals, families and groups in crisis. Anjail’s focus is working with various target populations including adults suffering from substance abuse, adults with significant disabilities and foster care families. Anjail graduated from South Carolina State University with a Bachelors in Social Work, and continued to study clinical social work and organizational community planning at the University of New England, earning her Masters in Social Work. Anjail currently facilitates substance abuse groups at a psychiatric facility in South Atlanta. Anjail Haqq is originally from Chesapeake, VA
Sharrieff R. De’Johnette is a doctoral candidate at Northcentral University and a 1996 graduate of Virginia State University. He is working on a doctorate in Education with specialization in E-Learning. He is working on his dissertation that will explore the perceptions of preservice teachers experiences to integrate information communication technology into their future practice. He is Editor and Founder of #OneState1882 Magazine, a digital magazine that showcases the musing of alumni, contemporary students, and friends of Virginia State University. Recently, he presented original research at New York University’s Technical Assistance Center on Disproportionality’s Sumer Institute 2018. He presented on racial discipline gap and what teachers could do to reduce the burden being experienced by Black males in K-12 educational settings. He is a former educator with 16-years of public school and higher education experience. Sharrieff’s area of interests are Black studies, African-American History, Race, Education, Politics, Hip Hop, and Social Media.
Panel 2. “Institutional Stages: Black Women Claiming their Voices, Defending their Spaces”
Phyllis Slade Martin
Phyllis Slade Martin holds a Ph.D. in History from George Mason University. She owns Slade&Associates, LLC a research, education, and organizational consulting business. Prior to becoming a small business owner, she served as the director of the African American Studies Research and Resource Center and the associate director of the program at George Mason University (GMU). Slade Martin is passionate about preserving African and African American history and has consulted on numerous projects to that end. Her research interests include race, gender, the church, and resistance in the U.S. and around the world
Candace Gray is an ABD at Morgan State University in African American History. Her dissertation entitled “Slavery, Race, and Women’s Rights in the Supreme Court of Texas, 1823-1923” reflects her graduate work in cultural and legal history studies. Currently she is a teaching assistant in a world history course that has expanded her understanding of slavery from the ancient world to the longue durée of the 19th century. After completion of her Ph.D. she will continue to emphasize her work in legal and social histories from 19th century American history while writing for future long- and short-term publication projects.
Kendall Artz
Kendall Artz is originally from Michigan. He completed his undergraduate degree at Hampshire College in Massachusetts and then went on to receive his MA in Anthropology from Queens University Belfast. His Master’s thesis was a critical ethnography of libertarianism in New Hampshire. His interests include Critical Race Theory, participant-based research, and identity building in all-white spaces
Panel 3. “Revolutions, Resistance, and Writing”
Angelita ReyesAn award-winning author, educator, and public speaker, Dr. Angelita Reyes is a distinct voice in today’s national and global arena of social transformation. She has published extensively, presented her research, and served as a keynote speaker in over 500 national and international conferences, workshops, and seminars.
Reyes is currently professor emerita at Arizona State University where she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses through interdisciplinary methodologies that include race, class, citizenship, and gender. Her research has appeared in numerous academic and general publications, video productions, and curated exhibits. Reyes is the founder and president of Literacy InterActives, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Virginia that promotes the interactive literacies of culture, history, education, and technology. Through her work with Literacy InterActives, Reyes is the recipient of a Preservation Virginia achievement award (2019) for significant contributions to the historic preservation of the Parker Sydnor log cabin site in southern Virginia.
Rachael Finch
Finch is the Executive Director and Historian for the Historic Franklin Masonic Hall Foundation, in Franklin, Tennessee. Finch leads the preservation, interpretation and education efforts to restore the nearly 200 year old National Historic Landmark to create the Franklin History Center. Finch served as the Research Historian for the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area and as the Civil War Project Coordinator at the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University. Finch holds an MA in Public History with emphases in Historic Preservation, Cultural Resource Management and Administration of Historical Organizations from MTSU and a BA in History and Political Science from Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colorado. Finch serves on the board of the Franklin Civil War Round Table and the Tennessee Preservation Trust. She is Vice Chair of the City of Franklin’s Civil War Historical Commission and the Commission’s subcommittee on Interpretation and Education.
Steven Gayle
Steven D. Gayle is a PhD student at Kennesaw State University’s School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development studying International Conflict Management. Steven earned his Bachelor’s in History Education from The University of North Carolina at Pembroke and a Master of Arts in Media and Communications from Norfolk State University. Steven’s area of focus consists of evaluating the historical and contemporary interactions of African and Native American populations in the United States from an international perspective. He is also the founder and Executive Director of the Afro-Amerindian Research and Cultural Center, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization based in the metro-Atlanta, GA area.
Panel 4. “The Fight for Civil Rights”
LaTika Lee
LaTika Lee is a proud graduate of Norfolk State University with professional experience in public affairs and communications. A Gullah/Geechee descendant, she was raised in the bosom of southern hospitality in Savannah, Georgia, but has been immersed in local and Virginia history, cultural heritage preservation and promotes all that the Commonwealth of Virginia has to offer. She considers herself to be a “Cultural Concierge” fusing interests in genealogy and African American heritage & culture. Among others, she has served on the boards of the African American Repertory Theatre, Richmond Boys Choir and the Greater Richmond Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society
Margaret B.S. Bristow
Dr. Margaret B.S. Bristow Born and raised in downtown southeast Newport News, the poorest section on the city's census tract, this semi-retired college English professor has lived there all her 69 years. Having earned the BS and MA degrees in English from Hampton University, she went on to earn the Doctorate in English from the University of Virginia in 1990. For 47 years, she has been married to Marshall Bristow. She is founder of a community education business entitled BERNICE which stands for Better Educational Resources Needed in Community Education. It offers you help if you need a writing coach and also proofreading, editing, and grant writing services. A former English Dual Enrollment, Creative Writing, and Honors English teacher at I.C. Norcom and Wilson High Schools, and retired associate professor of English at Hampton University, she presently teaches part-time at Hampton University and at Hidenwood Retirement Village in Newport News.
Gail Singleton Taylor
Dr. Gail Taylor is a "teacher's teacher" with over 30 years of experience in education. She graduated from Vassar College, Fordham University, and Texas A&M University where she received a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with concentrations in multicultural/bilingual education and reading. While a doctoral student, she participated in the US DOE’s Office Of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs Fellowship Program. As a tenured professor at Old Dominion University, she published two books along with numerous articles and chapters on the academic achievement of diverse learners and multicultural children's literature. Additionally, she taught a Study Abroad course in Barbados, initiated the African American Read-In Chain, and received a Fulbright-Hays Summer Fellowship in India where she had an audience with Mother Teresa. Lastly, Dr. Taylor was recognized for her effective and innovative approach to distance education when she was given the TELETECHNET Faculty Member of the Year award. A longtime born-again Christian, she is currently reading the entire Bible in a year.
Dale F. Harter
Dale F. Harter is the lead librarian at Matoaca High School, in Chesterfield County, Va., and a professional public historian. His research on Mary Rice Hayes Allen and her Confederate general father, John R. Jones, played a prominent part in the 1998 biography Freedom’s Child: The Life of a Confederate General’s Black Daughter, written by Allen’s daughter, Carrie Allen McCray. He holds a B.A. in Journalism and History from James Madison University and an M.A. in History and an M.L.I.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina
Panel 5. “Using Digital Humanities”
Ravynn K. Stringfield
Ravynn K. Stringfield is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at William & Mary. Her dissertation research focuses on Black women and girls in new media narratives that are futuristic, fantastic and/or digital
Greg Crawford
Greg Crawford of the Library of Virginia will share narratives of courage, Perseverance, and sacrifice displayed by pre-1865 black women in the face of great adversity that are found in LVA’s Virginia Untold: the African American Narrative Digital Collection. The Library of Virginia houses local court records, state records, personal papers, business records, newspapers, special collections, books, journals, etc., that date back to the 1600's. Collectively, these records contain the names of millions of African Americans both enslaved and free. The names are access points to the individual stories of African Americans who lived in Virginia from the establishment of slavery in the 1600's until its demise in 1865. They include stories of black women such as Rachel Viney who, despite having won her freedom in court in 1791, remained enslaved and forcibly taken to western Virginia. There is also the story of the Cullins sisters of Powhatan County. They were emancipated in the late 1830’s; however, their niece was not. This presentation will share the courageous efforts of Rachel Viney and the Cullins sisters to gain freedom for themselves and their family members no matter the cost.
Caroline Watson
Watson is originally from Atlanta, Georgia. She completed her undergraduate degree at Wake Forest University and is currently working on her M.A. in Historic Archaeology at William & Mary. Her past course and fieldwork focused on settlement ecology, lithic analysis, and identifying socioeconomic networks of Late Woodland periphery groups in North Carolina. In her graduate studies, she wishes to apply archaeological methods and analysis to themes of contact, displacement, and inequality
Panel 6. “Mutual Aid and Racial Uplift”
Alexandria Russell
Dr. Alexandria Russell is the 2019-2020 Scarlet & Black Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at Rutgers University. She received her Ph.D. in History from the University of South Carolina in 2018 and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education from the College of Charleston in 2009. Her book project, Sites Seen and Unseen: Mapping African American Women’s Public Memorialization, is a national study that examines the evolution of African American women’s public commemorations in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present. She is the recipient of a W.E.B. Du Bois Center postdoctoral fellowship, a Digital Humanities Summer Institute scholarship, and a Rose Library Research Fellowship to support her research.
Rachel Basinger
Rachel Basinger is a graduate student at Norwich University pursuing a master’s degree in history with an emphasis in public history. She graduated from Hillsdale College summa cum laude with departmental honors in history. She is currently employed by Ancestry as a contextual content writer while also working on several other projects, including transcribing interviews of World War II veterans and writing blog and magazine articles for various history organizations. She is a docent at a local museum and a member of the local historical society. Before moving to North Carolina, she lived in Williamsburg for four years, teaching high school history and humanities and volunteering at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives.
Audrey Perry Williams
Williams was born in Warwick County, later Newport News, VA and attended local schools graduating from George Washington Carver High School in 1963. She received a BA in History and Social Sciences from Norfolk State University and a MA from Hampton University in History Education. She taught school in Hampton, VA for 10 years. Later she began a career with the Federal Government and worked for all branches of the United States Military and for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as an Instructional Systems Design Specialist designing, developing, implementing and evaluating training. Upon retirement, I worked part-time as an Outreach Instructor for the Jamestown/Yorktown Foundation. she is a Life/50 years member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Life member of The Association for the Study of African American Life and History and serves as the President of the Hampton Roads Branch.
Panel 7. "Black Women's Cultural Impacts"
Monet Timmons
Monet Timmons is currently a second-year English PhD student and an African American Public Humanities Initiative (AAPHI) Fellow at the University of Delaware. Her research focuses on Black women in the archive from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. Through public humanities work, her research uncovers the fragments of these archives to reveal the larger complexities of these women lives to make a larger intervention about Black women’s lived experiences across space and time. Monet Timmons recently submitted a draft for publication regarding rhetoric surrounding campuses’ histories with enslavement with a focus on Catherine “Miss Kitty” Boyd and Emory University’s past. She is currently on the advisory committee for an exhibition on Alice Dunbar-Nelson expected to release Fall 2020 at the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia, PA
Lee Ann Timreck
Ms. Timreck is an independent folklorist and historical researcher. In 2016, Ms.Timreck completed George Mason University’s Graduate Certificate in Folklore Studies, and has continued her professional development through graduate courses in history at Virginia Commonwealth University, participation in professional conferences and personal development. In both 2017 and 2018, Ms. Timreck presented papers at the American Folklore Society Annual Conference on the topic of nineteenth century African American sculpture. Ms.Timreck is currently researching a book on the emancipation-themed sculpture of the African American artists Mary Edmonia Lewis and Meta Vaux Fuller, reflecting her interest in the history, culture and narratives of nineteenth century African Americans after Emancipation
LeKeisha Hughes
LeKeisha Hughes is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her dissertation Black Feminist Horror: Race, Gender, and the Making of Monstrosity in the U.S. calls together cultural and experiential modalities of horror in order to rethink the significance of horror for understanding structures of anti-blackness.
Panel 8. “Living in the Layers: Reimagining Church at St. Martin’s, Williamsburg”
The Rev. Lisa Green, Moderator
Lisa Green has been Associate Rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church since December 2017, returning to Williamsburg almost thirty-five years after graduating from William & Mary with a B.A. in English. She worked in the publishing and nonprofit sectors, before receiving her M.Div. from Drew Theological School in 2007. Since her ordination, Lisa has also served churches in northern New Jersey and Massachusetts and diocesan liturgy, formation, ecumenical/ interfaith, and social justice commissions. Lisa and her husband Warren Hicks have two adult children, Jonathan Hicks and Mary Mitchell (W&M ‘2010).
Barbara Engs Watson
Barbara Engs Watson, James City County Assistant Director Social Services, has worked for James City County for the past 33 years. The daughter of Myrtle and Robert Engs, she received her Master of Public Administration degree from Strayer University in 2011 and has a Bachelor of Science in Governmental Administration, Public Management from Christopher Newport University. She is co-owner of Jazzercise Williamsburg and a member of St. Martin’s and the board of All Together, Inc., an organization bringing together the people of the Greater Williamsburg area across racial lines.
Bonnie Winston Blayton
Bonnie Winston Blayton has been the Managing Editor of the Richmond Free Press since September 2014. A veteran journalist with more than three decades of daily newspaper experience in Richmond, Boston and Norfolk, she was educated at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and previously served as William & Mary’s development communications manager. She has received numerous awards for her writing and has taught journalism classes at Hampton University, University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University. She is related by marriage and affection to the Blayton and DeWitt families
Panel 9. "Slavery, Community, Resistance”
Elsa Mendoza
Elsa B. Mendoza is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Georgetown University and the assistant curator of the Georgetown Slavery Archive, an online repository of documents related to Jesuit slaveholding in Maryland. She is currently working on a dissertation titled “Catholic slaveholding and the origins of Jesuit higher education, 1789-1865.” Her research has been supported by a three-year Fulbright-Garcia Robles fellowship and grants from the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture. Her work on Jesuit slaveholding at Georgetown University has recently been accepted for publication in a special number of The Journal of Jesuit Studies, to be published in 2020. Currently, she is co-editing with Adam Rothman “Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation at Georgetown,” a publication of Georgetown University Press that is forthcoming in April 2021.
Clarence M. Dunnaville, Jr.,
Clarence M. Dunnaville, Jr., is one of the most prominent attorneys in Virginia. He was appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York by Robert F. Kennedy, and served as Senior Attorney for AT&T. He has worked for many years as a Civil Rights Attorney, and for equal justice under law. Dunnaville is a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation and has been named as a Virginia Leader in the Law. He is the author of many articles on Civil Rights and Social Justice and is the recipient of numerous awards for his public service, including the Diversity Award of the Virginia State Bar, which is named in his honor. In 2018, he received the commendation of the Virginia General Assembly, “for his exceptional achievements as an attorney, and as a Civil Rights advocate.”
Peter Gunter Dunnaville
Peter Gunter Dunnaville is a Legal Consultant and Historian. He is a history graduate of the University of Virginia, and a graduate of William and Mary’s School of Law. He also holds a Master of Laws degree, in Environmental Law, from Golden Gate University. He has worked as a legal associate of his father, Clarence M. Dunnaville, Jr., for many years, and as a Magistrate for the Virginia State Courts. Recently he has worked with his father in preparation of a history of their family over 400 years, and their roles in establishing and implementing slavery, Jim Crow, the “One Drop Rule” and Massive Resistance
Frederick Murphy
Since Frederick Murphy was young, he always enjoyed talking to his elders and hearing stories of family history. In 2016, he founded History Before Us, a project centered on capturing, preserving and advocating influential history. In the beginning of 2017 he started traveling the Southeastern region of the United States interviewing survivors of Jim Crow, the courageous individuals who didn’t make the headlines. These untold stories prompted him to complete the award-winning documentary The American South as We Know It. Frederick, a Licensed Professional Counselor by trade, utilizes tactful questioning, empathy and reflection to obtain relevant information needed to produce a true narrative of African American/American history. Frederick also has a Master’s degree in Transformative Leadership and serves as an educator in higher education.
Panel 10. Branch Out Alternative Break Panel with William & Mary Undergraduates
Vineeta Singh, moderator, Omohundro Institute & Lemon Project Postdoctoral Fellow
Panel 11. “Family, Relationships, and History”
Shené V. OwensShené V. Owens is a student, educator, and mentor. She currently serves as the Associate Director for the Center for Student Diversity at William & Mary; providing academic, social, and transition support for students. Shené is originally from Teaneck, NJ. When she’s not at William & Mary, She is extremely active in her communities both in Virginia and NY/NJ, serving as a mentor to teens and young adults. She is a PROUD member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. following the footsteps of her grandmother, Alonzetta C. Burns. Shené was honored by her Chapter as the 2019 Greek of the Year. Shené was chosen by The Hampton Roads Business Journal as the Top forty Under 40 Class of 2019 honoree for her serve to the community. She lives by the West African term “Sankofa”, which teaches us that we should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us, so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward.
Sheila R. Burns-Owens
Sheila is the mother of Shené V. Owens. Shené is the second of two children. Sheila is the blessed mother of two children; Willie J. C., Shené and three grandchildren. She has been married to Willie C. Owens for almost 40 years. As well as being a wife, mother and Grandmother Sheila is a retired New York City elementary school teacher and an elementary/middle school administrator. She is an ordained minister serving as an associated minister at First Baptist Church of Teaneck. As of October 1st she launched a business #Her2ndStitch making string quilted pillows. Working out and quilting are her current passions. She holds an undergraduate degree from Howard University, two masters degrees from City College University and a Masters of Divinity of New Brunswick Seminary. Wearing multiple hats seems to be heredity
Charles McLeod
Dr. Charles McLeod is an educational consultant and motivational speaker. Among his many accomplishments, he was the first African American to play on the basketball team for Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) where he earned a BS in Sociology and a MA in Counselor Education. He would go on to earn his doctorate in Higher Education Administration at the University of Virginia. Dr. McLeod’s professional experiences include faculty and administrative positions spanning elementary, middle, high school and university levels. He has served as Assistant Supervisor at the State Department of Education. Retired after nearly 35 years, he conducts parenting workshops and staff development activities for school personnel on important topics such as improving interpersonal relations, motivating at-risk students, communicating with parents, and parent engagement. Dr. McLeod and his wife live in the Richmond, Virginia area where they raised two Harvard-educated sons
Burnell Irby and Carol Miller are presenting as community members. Burnell is a retired history teacher and member of the Civil War Round Table in Washington DC. Carol is a member of the DC Historical Society and AAHGS. Again they have come together to present, using family pictures, documentation and memories, another episode in the life of their grandmother and great grandmother, Cornelia Whiting Burrell. Burnell began researching his family when, as a history major at Howard University, he rescued a rumpled brown paper bag filled with his great grandmothers’ papers. Carol is the one who recalls the memories her grandmother shared of life in Magruder and her migration to Washington.
Panel 12. “Four Centuries of Mobility and Movement”
Linda Quarles Arencibia
Linda Quarles Arencibia is a researcher, writer, and public speaker who focuses on the wide arch of historical and contemporary Black equestrian presence and activity. Ms. Arencibia has pursued the study of African and African American history since her first exposure to these disciplines in high school in the 1970s. The appetite that was whet by her parents and Dr. Don Housley then was further stimulated as she pursued African American Studies at the University of Virginia. Her passion for African and African American history, genealogy, and horses coupled with her values of inclusion and fairness drive Ms. Arencibia’s vision for what she terms Equestrian Equality and undergirds her research, writing, and presentations. She currently resides in Louisa County, Virginia where her family history began, and near the center of Virginia horse activity
Grant Morgan and Anitra Howard
Anitra Howard and Grant Morgan are both sophomores in the Batten Honors College of Virginia Wesleyan University. Grant is a History major with a Criminal Justice minor and Anitra is a Political Science major with a History minor. Howard and Morgan created this project as part of their history course, “Race and the American City.”
Luke Campopiano
Luke Campopiano is a senior history and philosophy major at William & Mary. His research interests include Arctic geopolitics, international law, and intellectual history. He has previously written on topics including Svalbard, non-state Arctic actors, aesthetic perceptions of the Arctic, and American environmental policy. He is currently working on an honors thesis exploring the use of the legal term terra nullius in the context of the Svalbard Question of the 1910s. Luke hopes to work in the field of Arctic policy in the future
Jackson Cantrell is a 17-year-old high school junior from Mandeville, Louisiana. Jack’s research into enslaved families and Native peoples began in 2018 as his Eagle Scout project. His goal was to write scripts for two historical plaques to be placed at Fontainebleau State Park, the site where both populations once lived. After interviewing historians, visiting plantations, poring through documents, and – the most difficult - translating old mortgages handwritten in French, Jack realized that what he had learned would never fit on a historical marker. He compiled his findings in documents which the State of Louisiana’s park service published online in 2019. His report, The Enslaved Families of Fontainebleau, is on permanent file with the Amistad Research Center and the Universities Studying Slavery consortium. His summary on The Native People of Fontainebleau is on file with the United Houma Nation.
