https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/ A small journal of attention, kept slowly to note history in the area around me. Researched articles on African American communities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. en-us Sun, 16 Aug 2026 11:23:15 GMT Sun, 16 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT History Notes (static RSS export) https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/sheary-darcus-johnson-madison-college sheary-darcus-johnson-madison-college Sun, 16 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Dr. Sheary Darcus Johnson, recognized by James Madison University as Madison College's first known Black graduate, earned her library science degree in 1970 after helping desegregate Harrisonburg High School in 1964 — a life that connects segregated schooling, higher-education desegregation, and decades of later work in librarianship, ministry, and nonprofit leadership. History Harrisonburg Higher Education Desegregation https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/bowmantown-loudoun-county bowmantown-loudoun-county Tue, 14 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Bowmantown, a small hamlet south of Aldie in Loudoun County, was settled by free Black families in the early 1800s and grew into one of the county's oldest African American communities, centered on Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, a one-room schoolhouse rebuilt twice after fires, and Neal Corum's store, which anchored the community's commercial life for 46 years. History Loudoun County Free Black Settlement Land Ownership https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/thoroughfare-broad-run-prince-william thoroughfare-broad-run-prince-william Mon, 13 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Thoroughfare is a small, unincorporated community in western Prince William County founded by formerly enslaved and free Black families and families of Native American descent after the Civil War, centered on Oakrum Baptist Church and a cluster of family cemeteries; a 2021–2023 county-commissioned oral history project and a wave of cemetery-preservation advocacy have brought new documentation and attention to a place first widely publicized nationally by its 1994 fight against Disney's America. History Prince William County Land Ownership Cemeteries https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/freedom-hill-cartersville-fairfax freedom-hill-cartersville-fairfax Sun, 12 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Freedom Hill, also known historically as the Cartersville community, was one of Fairfax County's earliest free Black communities, built around the landholdings of the multiracial Carter family near present-day Tysons Corner and Vienna; the U.S. Army's Civil War-era Redoubt Freedom Hill later preserved the community's name, and modern interpretive work at Freedom Hill Fort Park has recovered its story of free Black and Indigenous landownership, kinship, and survival. History Fairfax County Land Ownership Civil War https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/pelham-town-arlington pelham-town-arlington Sat, 11 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Pelham Town was a small African American community near today's Marymount University area, built by the Pelham family on land acquired after the Civil War and anchored by Mount Salvation Baptist Church, before Jim Crow-era water and road policy hollowed the neighborhood out in the mid-twentieth century. History Arlington Land Ownership Churches https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/johnsons-hill-arlington johnsons-hill-arlington Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Johnson's Hill — later renamed Arlington View — was a historically Black South Arlington community whose identity was carried forward through the Jefferson School and its successor, Hoffman-Boston, and whose Johnson family descendants remained on the land from enslavement through emancipation and beyond. History Arlington Education Segregation https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/school-street-fairfax school-street-fairfax Wed, 08 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT A dead-end road just south of the old Fairfax Courthouse gave its name to both a Black residential neighborhood, founded in 1920 after a fire destroyed an earlier Black tenant district, and the Fairfax Rosenwald School that its own residents organized, funded, and built there in 1925–26. History Fairfax City Education Rosenwald Schools https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/cherrydale-arlington cherrydale-arlington Tue, 07 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Named for Dorsey Donaldson's cherry orchard, Cherrydale grew from a post-Civil War rural crossroads into a nationally recognized historic district — and, in 1960, became the site of one of Northern Virginia's first civil rights sit-ins, when Howard University students challenged segregated lunch counters at the Cherrydale Drug Fair. History Arlington Civil Rights Preservation https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/green-valley-nauck-arlington green-valley-nauck-arlington Mon, 06 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Historically also known as Nauck, Green Valley is one of Arlington County's oldest African American communities, tracing to free Black landownership in 1844 — and sustained ever since by churches, schools, businesses, and a beloved ball field that once drew Black baseball clubs from across the region. History Arlington Preservation https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/malcolm-heights-vienna-virginia malcolm-heights-vienna-virginia Fri, 03 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT After the Civil War, Union Army captain Harmon Salsbury sold small lots to freed Black residents near what would become Malcolm Heights — launching a Black community in Vienna anchored by First Baptist Church, a colored school, and a Sons and Daughters of Liberty cemetery that still stands today. History Vienna Preservation https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/halls-hill-high-view-park-arlington halls-hill-high-view-park-arlington Wed, 01 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Founded when Basil Hall sold land to freed African Americans after the Civil War, Halls Hill became one of Arlington County's most enduring Black neighborhoods — and later the site of a segregation wall that physically marked the county's racial divide. History Arlington Civil Rights https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/williamstown-fairfax-county williamstown-fairfax-county Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT Founded after the Civil War by formerly enslaved people and free Black Virginians along Gallows Road near Merrifield, Williamstown was a self-sustaining farming community that survived Jim Crow only to be erased by eminent domain and suburban development in the twentieth century. History Fairfax County Preservation https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/queen-city-arlington-virginia queen-city-arlington-virginia Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT By 1940, Queen City was a Black neighborhood of 903 residents and 218 homes in East Arlington. Two years later, the federal government cleared it in weeks for Pentagon access roads — leaving behind one of Northern Virginia's starkest examples of wartime displacement. History Arlington Displacement https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/tinner-hill-falls-church tinner-hill-falls-church Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT In 1915, Joseph Tinner and Dr. Edwin Bancroft Henderson organized Falls Church's Black residents to defeat a residential segregation ordinance — and in doing so helped launch what is recognized as the first rural branch of the NAACP. History Falls Church Civil Rights https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/ilda-crossroads-annandale ilda-crossroads-annandale Sun, 21 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT At the corner of Guinea Road and Little River Turnpike, two freedmen built a racially mixed crossroads community around a Black-owned blacksmith shop — until Jim Crow, racial covenants, and a 1950 subdivision erased it almost entirely. History Annandale Ilda https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/james-lee-elementary-school james-lee-elementary-school Sat, 20 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT Opened in 1948 after two decades of Black community activism, James Lee Elementary remained one of the last two segregated schools in Fairfax County to close — twelve years after Brown v. Board of Education. History Falls Church Education https://absolonkent.net/projects/history-notes/#/post/sons-and-daughters-liberty sons-and-daughters-liberty Sat, 20 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT Beneath the ball fields and trails of Pine Ridge Park lies a quarter-acre burial ground — the last physical trace of The Pines, a self-sufficient African American community founded in the 1890s and erased by eminent domain in 1965. History Annandale Preservation