Near the end of Black History Month, Agenda Alexandria is bringing together a panel to discuss Black Alexandrians who helped shape the history of the city.
The talk, called “Resilience and Legacy: Unveiling Alexandria’s Black History” will highlight those who struggled against slavery and Jim Crow-era discrimination.
Genealogist and Alexandria Living Legend Char McCargo Bah didn’t have a lot of leads to go on when it came to finding the family of a man murdered in Alexandria over 125 years ago.
Joseph McCoy was lynched by a mob in Alexandria in 1897. In recent years, Alexandria has worked to commemorate the brutal murder of McCoy and other lynchings in the city as part of a nationwide initiative.
Black History Month kicks off next week and events around Alexandria throughout February will explore, commemorate and celebrate Black history in the city.
One of the biggest new additions is the “African American Waterfront Heritage Trail” running along the waterfront.
Care to try your hand at some tavern games by candlelight?
Earlier this week, Alexandria’s City Council approved the introduction and first reading of legislation to change the names of streets currently honoring Confederate leaders.
The legislation, the first fruit of a year-long effort to start a renaming process for streets celebrating leaders of the Confederacy, heads to a final vote on Saturday, Jan. 20.
A new temporary exhibit at Freedom House Museum until April documents the life of a teenager enslaved at Washington Seminary in D.C.
“Searching for Truth in the Garden” reveals a story of Gabriel, a 13-year-old boy who was enslaved at the school — later renamed Gonzaga College High School — in 1829.
The Office of Historic Alexandria has debuted its annual holiday ornament: a solid brass decoration depicting Potomac Yard’s rail yard history.
The 3 x 2.75 inch ornament features a steam-powered locomotive in the foreground and the Capitol Building in the background. The ornament is $25.
The days of digging through archives by address to find a historical report on a building in Alexandria could, themselves, be a thing of the past.
Anyone can now easily access archeological reports from around Alexandria via a new interactive map.
The City of Alexandria is hosting a public hearing tonight on plans to rename streets that honor Confederate leaders.
Last month, the city identified six streets that could be renamed early next year.
Alexandrians have had a lot of thoughts on local architecture recently, and now they’ll get a chance to craft their own building in Old Town — albeit one made out of gingerbread.
Gadsby’s Tavern Museum (138 N. Royal Street) is once again hosting its gingerbread decorating event early next month, with gingerbread houses themed around various historic buildings in Old Town.
Douglass Memorial Cemetery (1421 Wilkes Street) has long suffered flooding and neglect, but the City of Alexandria said plans to address issues at the cemetery will be presented at a meeting next week.
City employee Michael Johnson has been ringing alarm bells about the state of the cemetery for years. The cemetery has been a burial site for Black Alexandrians since 1827. Around 2,000 people were buried in the cemetery before burials stopped in 1974.
