04/20/2026
The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation is a multifaceted and dynamic attempt to rectify wrongs perpetrated against African Americans by William & Mary through action or inaction.
The Project is named for Lemon, a man who was once enslaved by William & Mary and strives to build bridges between the university, Williamsburg, and the Greater Tidewater area. In many ways, Lemon stands in the place of the known and unknown people of African descent who helped to build, maintain, and move the university and nation forward.
Each spring, the Lemon Project hosts an annual symposium that invites researchers, academics, and members of the community to shed light on the past experiences of African Americans in and around William & Mary so as to provide a usable past for our future.
Chesapeake Heartland Director Darius Johnson and Community Historians Carolyn Brooks and Airlee Ringgold Johnson, Starr Center Deputy Director Jaelon T. Moaney and Student Intercultural Affairs Director Nicolle Moaney were honored attend on behalf of as the only higher education member of the inaugural Descendant and Family Stewardship Initiative cohort and present two panels.
The Descendant Communities Speak Plenary Panel centered the voices of descendants of free, freed, and enslaved people in a keynote conversation on Black dignity, resilience, and collective strength by exploring how ancestral knowledge, joy, and dignity sustain Black communities and inform ongoing efforts toward repair and healing. Our own panel spoke to the evolving growth and wide impact of Chesapeake Heartland since 2020.
It has been a tremendous privilege to travel the U.S. sharing best practices our experiences have afforded, while also being embraced as thought leaders engaged in field-building. Visiting the campus home to the oldest academic building in America as representatives from the first college chartered in the newly sovereign nation was no exception.
Across the Shore, we are innovating lasting frameworks of placekeeping and placemaking so that future generations know Delmarva histories deserve to stand in full view.
Recordings are now available on YouTube!
