01
Accuracy first
Every entry meets the Registry Standard and cites at least two independent sources. Corrections are welcome and made openly.
Point Comfort, Virginia · August 1619
Four centuries of Black history, told where American history began.
The first recorded Africans in English North America landed on Virginia's shore. Virginia then built the laws that made slavery hereditary, held more enslaved people than any other state, and became the ground where freedom was seized, schools were founded, cases were won, and the nation's first elected Black governor took office. This is that history, era by era.
“About the latter end of August, a Dutch man of Warr … brought not any thing but 20. and odd Negroes.”
John Rolfe, letter to Sir Edwin Sandys, January 1620
407years since the White Lion anchored at Point Comfort
490,865enslaved Virginians in the 1860 census, the most of any state
1951Barbara Johns leads the Moton walkout, the only Brown case begun by students
1989L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first Black American elected governor
The Galleries
Eight galleries, 1619 to today
Walk the history room by room. The band below is drawn to scale across 407 years: select a gallery to enter it, or filter by theme and search every entry.
161917001800190020002026
246 of these 407 years, more than 60 percent of the band, fall before emancipation in 1865.
The Collection
From the archive
Maps, lithographs, photographs, and newspapers from the Library of Congress and NASA. Select any work to view it full size.
The Museum
Explore the wings
Start with the eight galleries, or go straight to a wing. Every wing follows the same Registry Standard for who and what belongs in the record.
Main exhibition
The Galleries, 1619 to today
Eight rooms, more than 90 turning points, primary documents, and photographs from the archive.
Enter the galleries → RegistryNotable Virginians
More than 100 people who meet the four-part standard.
Meet them → EducationVirginia's HBCUs
Six institutions, their histories, and their alumni.
Visit → PowerPolitics, Past to Present
From the 1867 convention to the attorney general's office.
Read → FaithHistoric Black Churches
Congregations older than the nation, and the movements they housed.
Visit → ServiceMilitary Service
From the Revolution to the first Black admiral.
Read → RecordsSports & Records
Firsts and records set by Virginia athletes.
See the records → CultureMusic, Arts & Media
From Ella Fitzgerald to the Hampton Roads sound.
Listen in → MapPlaces to Visit
25 sites across the Commonwealth.
Open the map → ClassroomFor Teachers
Galleries aligned to Virginia's history courses.
Get the guide → ContributeSubmit to the Registry
Nominate a person, event, or place.
Nominate → ArchiveThe Collection
Maps, photographs, and newspapers from the archive.
View → FilmScreening Room
Footage from Fort Monroe to Monument Avenue.
Watch → Support the museumThe Museum Shop
Apparel and prints that fund research, school programs, and a permanent museum in Virginia.
Browse the shop →Museum / Education wing
Virginia's Historically Black Colleges & Universities
Founded in church basements, army barracks, and a former slave jail, Virginia's HBCUs trained the teachers, lawyers, ministers, and engineers who led every chapter that followed. Their alumni include Virginians and people from across the nation and world.
6institutions founded
1865oldest roots, Virginia Union
5still operating today
Museum / Power wing
Politics, Past to Present
Black Virginians helped write the state constitution in 1867, were driven from the ballot in 1902, and fought their way back to city halls, the General Assembly, Congress, and the governor's office.
24Black delegates, 1867–68 convention
1989first elected Black governor in the U.S.
2025first Black attorney general of Virginia
The record of firsts Statewide, federal & legislative
Still unwritten. No Black Virginian has yet served in the United States Senate. Winsome Earle-Sears became the first Black woman nominated for governor by a major party in 2025.
Local leadership Cities & counties
Museum / Faith wing
Historic Black Churches
The Black church was Virginia's first Black-controlled institution. Congregations met in secret before the law allowed them, then became schools, banks, meeting halls, and headquarters for the civil rights movement.
Museum / Service wing
Military Service
Black Virginians have fought in every American war, often for a country that denied them citizenship. Virginia is also home to Fort Monroe, Fort Lee, and the largest naval base in the world, making service part of the Commonwealth's Black history in every generation.
5,000+Black Virginians in the U.S. Colored Troops
14Medals of Honor at New Market Heights
1971first Black admiral, from Richmond
Virginia-born Medal of Honor recipients New Market Heights, 1864
Museum / Records wing
Sports & Records
Firsts, titles, and all-time records set by athletes born, raised, or schooled in Virginia.
Museum / Culture wing
Music, Arts & Media
Jazz royalty from Newport News, Harlem Renaissance poetry from Lynchburg, and the Hampton Roads producers who rewired pop and hip-hop.
Museum / Classroom
For Teachers
Every gallery maps to the history courses Virginia students take, from fourth-grade Virginia Studies to the high school African American History elective. Use the galleries as a virtual field trip, and the primary documents as source analysis.
Courses covered Virginia History & Social Science
VSVirginia Studies, Grade 4
USIUnited States History to 1865
USIIUnited States History, 1865 to the present
VUSVirginia and United States History, high school
CECivics and Economics
AAHAfrican American History elective, introduced statewide in 2020
Gallery alignment
Alignment is by course topic. Confirm specific standard numbers against the current Virginia Department of Education framework.
Classroom kits Guiding questions & primary sources
Museum / Contribute
Submit to the Registry
Know a person, event, church, or place that belongs in Virginia's Black history? Nominate it. Every submission is reviewed against the Registry Standard before it is published.
Museum / Screening Room
The Screening Room
Film and news footage from the places where this history happened, from the African Landing at Fort Monroe to the day Richmond's Lee statue came down.
From the archive Watch on the source site
Museum / The Journal
The Journal
News from the museum, new research, stories from the archive, and voices from across the Commonwealth. Every post is cited, and every writer is welcome.
Coming up Series in the works
Write for the Journal
Become a contributor
Historians, teachers, students, pastors, genealogists, journalists, and anyone with a Virginia story backed by the record. Tell us what you want to write. Contributors are credited on every post and listed on the About page.
Museum / About
About Virginia Black History
A free digital museum of four centuries of Black life in Virginia, built to be read, taught, visited, and added to by the people whose history it holds.
Our mission
To preserve, teach, and celebrate the history of Black Virginians from 1619 to today, and to make that history free and open to everyone, on every device, for as long as there is an internet.
PreserveGather the record, from court documents to family photographs, and keep it cited and permanent.
TeachAlign every gallery to Virginia's classrooms and support teachers with free materials and events.
ConnectPoint visitors to Virginia's museums, archives, churches, HBCUs, and historic sites, and work alongside them.
InvestGrow a scholarship fund and support Black cultural events in communities across the Commonwealth.
How we work
02
Credit always
Archives, photographers, writers, and families are credited by name on everything we publish.
03
A companion, not a competitor
We send people to Virginia's museums and historic sites. The best outcome of a visit here is a visit there.
04
Built to last
Plain, fast, open web pages that work on any phone or school laptop, today and decades from now.
Founder
Photo
coming soon
coming soon
Founder's biography
A photo and biography of the founder will be added here soon.
Get involved
Write
Contribute to the Journal
Pitch a story, a series, or research you've done.
Nominate
Add to the Registry
Name a person, place, or event that belongs in the record.
Partner
Organizations & governments
Museums, schools, churches, civic groups, and city and county governments: let's work together.
Museum / Shop
The Museum Shop
Every purchase funds research, school programs, and the long-term goal of a permanent physical museum in Virginia.
Threads
What runs through it
Three patterns repeat across every era of Virginia's history.
Law as the instrument
Virginia wrote slavery into statute piece by piece: hereditary bondage in 1662, the slave codes of 1705, disfranchisement in 1902, the Racial Integrity Act in 1924, Massive Resistance in 1956. Black Virginians answered in the courts, from Elizabeth Key in 1656 to Loving v. Virginia in 1967.
Resistance, always
Maroons in the Great Dismal Swamp. Gabriel's march that never came. Nat Turner. Three men rowing to Fort Monroe. A sixteen-year-old walking her classmates out of Moton High. Resistance took every form available, and it never stopped.
Building anyway
Churches, banks, newspapers, theaters, and schools: First African Baptist, St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, the Richmond Planet, the Attucks Theatre, Hampton and Virginia State. Institutions built under hostile law became the base for every later movement.
Notable Virginians
The people who made the record
More than 100 Virginians, from the Eastern Shore planters of the 1600s to today, listed by birth. Search, or filter by the period of their defining work or by distinction.
The Registry Standard
Who belongs in the record
Every person listed on this site meets all four tests. The standard keeps the registry historical rather than a list of popularity, and it applies the same way to 1656 and to 2026.
I
Virginia ground
Born or raised in Virginia, or did the defining work of their life here.
II
Lasting significance
A documented first, a landmark case, law, or institution, or work that changed conditions for Black Virginians or the nation.
III
Verified record
Confirmed by at least two independent sources: archives, court or government records, peer-reviewed scholarship, or established institutions.
IV
Test of time
Historic firsts enter when they happen. Other achievements are considered once ten years have passed, so the record reflects impact rather than headlines.
PathbreakerFirst to hold an office, win a title, or open a door.
Freedom FighterResistance to slavery and segregation, in the field or in court.
BuilderFounders of schools, churches, banks, businesses, and communities.
Public ServantElected office, the bench, and military service.
CreatorMusic, literature, film, journalism, and sport.
DiscovererScience, mathematics, medicine, and spaceflight.
Faith LeaderPreachers, missionaries, and congregations that carried the community.
WitnessLives and testimony that preserved the record, especially from slavery.
Two records How modern names are handled
The RegistryStatewide or national significance. All four tests. Example: L. Douglas Wilder, Shaboozey's record-tying No. 1.
The Community RecordA documented local first or distinction in a Virginia city or county: first Black mayor, sheriff, judge, school board chair. Example: Dumfries Mayor Derrick Wood.
Not yetActive careers without a first, a record, or ten years of impact. A pro athlete in his prime qualifies when he sets a record or retires into the Hall of Fame.
Inclusion records historical significance. It is not an endorsement of every action in a person's life, and the registry notes controversy where the record requires it.
Landmarks & Museums
Where the history stands
Twenty-five sites across the Commonwealth, and the places where the timeline's turning points happened. Site cards are styled after Virginia's aluminum roadside historical markers. Check hours before visiting.
Sites to visit (number of sites)Where it happened: hover or tap a dot
Select a gold pin to jump to its sites.
Sources & Further Reading
Go deeper
Institutions that hold the primary records, scholarship, and collections behind this history.
Visit in person. The Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia, in the historic Leigh Street Armory in Richmond's Jackson Ward, holds the Commonwealth's collections on Black Virginian life. This site is an independent digital companion: it points readers to Virginia's museums, archives, and historic sites, and encourages everyone to visit them.
Figures and dates follow the standard historical record. Where historians differ, as with casualty counts in 1831 or the number of people sold out of Virginia before 1860, this site gives a range or a rounded figure. Corrections and additions are welcome.