Pilgrims’ report: What they brought back from civil rights pilgrimage
A month ago, around 100 locals set off on two buses to Montgomery, Alabama, carrying soil from the site where John Henry James was lynched in 1898 in Albemarle County. […]
Day 5 #CvillePilgrimage: Say his name
Next to nothing is known about John Henry James—not his age, his family nor his occupation. All that is certain is that he died on July 12, 1898, at the […]
Journey begins: #cvillepilgrimage commemorates, reclaims local lynching
About 50 people gathered in the woods beside the train tracks running west of Charlottesville early July 7. The morning was cool and birds could be heard chirping in the […]
Confronting a shameful past: Search for 1898 lynching site narrows
As big a role as history plays in Charlottesville’s identity, some events, like an 1898 lynching, were pretty much buried or forgotten until Jane Smith was doing historical research and […]
‘Complicit’: Pilgrimage acknowledges Charlottesville’s legacy of lynching
The lynching of John Henry James in Albemarle in 1898 for allegedly assaulting a white woman was both horrific—and all too common in the era of Jim Crow. More than […]