"The Fort" African American Community Event

“We’re Still Here: Celebrating an African American Community at Fort Ward”
Title:"The Fort" African American Community Event
Date & Time:Saturday, June 2, 2012 • 1-4 p.m.
Location:Fort Ward Park Museum, 4301 W. Braddock Rd.
Event Details:After the end of the Civil War, the land formerly used by the Union Army to build Fort Ward became home to a community of African American families who began settling on the property and working in the nearby Seminary area by the 1870s, if not earlier. This closely knit group of families and their twentieth-century descendants called the neighborhood, “The Fort.” Family members continued to own land on the site until the City of Alexandria established Fort Ward Park in the early 1960s. Today, descendants of the 19th and 20th-century residents of “The Fort” and Seminary area still live in Alexandria. Their story is being re-discovered and interpreted as part of a public history project that focuses on the history of these families and evidence of their lives and burial sites in the landscape of present-day Fort Ward Park.

The program on June 2 will begin with the presentation of park interpretive signage that will be used to develop a public tour of “The Fort” community, followed by a ceremony at the grave site of Clara Adams, a matriarch of the community who was born on June 2, 1865. The program continues in the Park amphitheatre where public remarks will include an overview of the history of “The Fort” families, remembrances of and reflections on daily life in the area by individuals who lived on the site or whose ancestors resided there, and a performance by the Oakland Baptist Church Choir. Information on oral histories, public records, archaeological investigation, and the organizations involved in documenting “The Fort” community will be available.
Contact Phone No.:703.746.4848
Fees:Free
Audience:Anyone may attend
Tags:Museums


For event details visit http://www.alexandriava.gov/c/3970
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