Edwin Washington Project

9/4/17

Much material has already been developed on the pre-integration African-American experience in Loudoun by the Loudoun Museum, the Balch Library, the Black History Committee, and independent scholars. While some duplication of effort will be inevitable, this page is mainly focused on identifying new or rarely used sources, in some cases unpublished sources; and because the African-American experience is intertwined with the “white experience, ” there is also much here of value to understanding the lives of whites who lived as neighbors to African-Americans. After all the life of one group absolutely impacted the other and visa versa.

As examples of rare material, we have uncovered original documents that identified the establishment of schools in the 1700’s in Loudoun as well as early as 1820 the names of five white students. They may be the earliest known names of “scholars,” as they were then called.

This is a living list that will be added to over time.

1) 1905 Census of African-Americans in the Jefferson school district who were of school age. 1905 Census

2) Catalog of Resources. This is a living document, intended to grow as we find material that fits the above definition. See from the Conklin village Project effort. It won’t have a final edit date.

3) Rare documents related to the Conklin Village.

4) See also Loudoun County: African-American Historic Architectural Resources Survey, Library of Virginia: School Building Services Photograph Collection. Prepared by: History Matters, LLC, Washington, DC, September 2004, Sponsored by the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors & The Black History Committee of the Friends of the Thomas Balch Library Leesburg.

5) Mortuary Records. During the course of our research, we came upon a ledger for Mortimer Verts, a carpenter of Hillsboro, covering mortuary related records between 1895 and 1913, including records for the Emerick family. The coffins described in the book are for both white and black families, and are of serious historical value to understanding Loudoun County. The original ledger was discovered by Louis Jett, a local historian in Loudoun and a member of the Black History Committee of the Friends of the Balch Library. Mortuary Records of Mortimer Virts

Related Published Resources:

Eggleston, Joseph Dupuy., Bruère, Robert Walter. The Work of the Rural School. United Kingdom: Harper & brothers, 1913.