NEH Public Impact Project at Virginia Union University

FAIN: TA-296575-24

Virginia Union University (Richmond, VA 23220-1784)
Mark DeYoung (Project Director: June 2023 to present)

Development of an exhibition on the history of Black women’s higher education and related interpretive training for staff.

This project's target audience is Black women and girls in Richmond, the same community Hartshorn Memorial College (HMC) students, and Maggie L. Walker focused on. At a time when Black women’s rights are being threatened, it is all the more important that the former capital of the Confederacy remembers its less well-known history as a capital of Black female empowerment. Figures like Maggie L. Walker and the alumni of HMC demonstrate that Black women have the capacity to take charge of their own destiny as well as the destiny of their communities; hence, telling their stories in a compelling way can be an empowering way for Black women and girls to connect to their legacy and capacity.