Program Updates
Guided history walking tours are available year-round. Contact Sterling Howell at [email protected] or (434) 296-1492 to learn more and to schedule a tour.
All of our programs are still being held online. Check our calendar page for all upcoming online programs and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for additional information and to watch recordings of our programs!
Race & Sports
This oral history project seeks to collect and preserve the memories of those involved in Charlottesville and Albemarle County public school sports during the period of Massive Resistance and desegregation. We are building a database of interviews with Black and White student athletes, cheerleaders, school administrators, teachers, coaches, local leaders, and parents who share their stories of that tumultuous time. For some, sport is the great equalizer that allows individual talent and effort to overshadow socio-economic conditions. For others, sport is just another form of exploitation and oppression that has promulgated racial stereotypes and limited opportunities for African Americans. With this project, we seek to interrogate these assumptions and reveal the complex truths from the long-simplified myths. Our ultimate goal is to produce a quality documentary focused on the role of athletics in the desegregation of schools. Sport is one small aspect of the story of race in America, but it is a story with broad resonance – one we believe has not been fully explored.
Check out our first online program for this project with Kent Merritt, David Sloan, moderated by Shelley Murphy, and including Phyllis Leffler, George H. Gilliam and Annie Valentine in partnership with AARP Virginia, ASALH: Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and AAHGS-Greater Richmond, Virginia Chapter. The Virginia Humanities and the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation Enriching Communities fund are generously supporting our work. Please consider supporting us with this initiative. And do you have stories or know others who do who would like to share with this project to help tell this important part of our local history: [email protected]
Membership
Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society members, if you have already renewed for 2021, thank you! Membership dues make up a large portion of our annual operating budget. Every membership counts! Please continue to support us!
Support Us
The Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society is facing a number of challenges and needs your support to help #ACHSOpenOurDoors during the Covid-19 crisis.
Vision
Our vision is to reimagine and reinvent the role of the historical society in the twenty-first century: to be a strong civic organization that embraces, in all that we do, the diversity of our community’s history and experience, and promotes a greater understanding of our past, to enlighten the present and foster an inclusive history for future generations.
Mission
History is not the past; it is the story we tell about the past. Every person in Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville has a unique and powerful story to tell. Through collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of our community, we are committed to informing, inspiring, and bringing together all people, creating opportunities for new relationships and new understandings.
Values
Our work is grounded in a belief in the worth and dignity of every human being. We respect people, communities, and cultures. We value discovery, creativity, integrity, and diversity. We believe in the potential for history to enrich our lives and to create stronger relationships and more vibrant communities. We approach our work with integrity and transparency.