Shenandoah County NAACP 72AAB

06/11/2026

The public celebration of Emancipation Day in Shenandoah County began in 1934, if not earlier.
At our branch's inaugural Juneteenth in 2025, we heard about the forgotten - neglected and dustbinned - history of segregated CCC camps in Shenandoah County. In 1934, African Americans in Woodstock celebrated Emancipation Day. Participating were men from the Wolf Gap CCC -- and their white commanders (see last paragraph on the left below).
Image: Northern Virginia Daily, Volume 52, Number 231, 28 September 1934

06/10/2026

Which phrase was inserted to exclude the enslaved population from these rights?: “That all Men are by nature equally free and Independent and have certain inherent Rights of which when they enter into a state of Society they cannot by any compact deprive or divest their Posterity namely the enjoying of Life and liberty with the means of acquiring and possessing property and pursuing and obtaining happiness and Safety.”

On June 12, 1776, the Fifth Virginia Revolutionary Convention unanimously adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights. While it explicitly excluded the large population of people who were enslaved in the Commonwealth, it articulated the fundamental principles of government aspired to by the rebellious North American colonies. Read more about the declaration and its author in today's The UncommonWealth. VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
https://uncommonwealth.lva.virginia.gov/blog/2026/06/10/george-mason-and-declaration-of-rights/

06/10/2026

For National Garden Week, discover how Black women’s garden clubs changed more than the landscape in Virginia. This recorded talk and blog post from author, independent scholar and 2021 Virginia Humanities research fellow Meredith Henne Baker describe how tireless Black gardeners advocated for conservation laws, tackled hunger and successfully challenged the injustices of segregation.

Watch the talk: https://youtu.be/BG8FOZ-pSpo
Read Baker’s blog post: https://uncommonwealth.lva.virginia.gov/blog/2021/12/08/garden-clubs-plant-seeds-of-change/

06/10/2026

06/10/2026

Here's what "erasing history" looks like (the following quotes are from the linked post):

In Philadelphia, the President’s House, located within Independence National Historical Park, appears on this year’s list. Earlier in the year, a White House executive order caused National Park Service staff to remove the panels that told the history of the nine Black Americans who were enslaved there by George Washington when the house on that site served as the President’s House. To date, only a portion of the panels have been restored following a lawsuit by the City of Philadelphia and a judge’s injunction.

“We’re committed to telling the full American story. Even places that hold the most complicated stories, we need to confront them, not erase them." - National Trust CEO Carol Quillen

The President House at Independence National Historical Park joins 11 other sites dedicated to inclusive American history

06/10/2026

Learn more about our history of racial injustice.

06/09/2026

The NAACP and the NAACP Tennessee State Conference and impacted voters, along with co-counsels the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and LDF, have filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to block Tennessee’s newly enacted congressional map, which dismantles the state’s only major...

06/09/2026

The future of voting rights in Virginia will be driven, in part, by the Readmission Act of 1870.

The year was 1870, and Virginia was under military occupation. In order to have members of Congress return to the Capitol, state officials agreed that they would not make up new felonies to disenfranchise Black people.

“It acknowledges the fact that Southern states are stripping Black voting power by expanding the definition of felonies to include various things that were not considered felonies then," says ACLU lawyer Eden Heilman about the Readmission Act of 1870.
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Current events show us the motivation to suppress Black votes still exists. The tide of redistricting is just the latest evidence.

For the remainder of the article, follow the link.

The year was 1870, and Virginia was under military occupation. In order to have members of Congress return to the Capitol, state officials agreed that they would not make up new felonies to disenfranchise Black people.

06/09/2026

Bringing it close to home, WHSV - TV 3 in Harrisonburg has picked up the article in yesterday's Virginia Mercury as we await Judge Urbanski's decision in NAACP Virginia State Conference and student plaintiffs v. Shenandoah County School Board.

Lawsuit over schools honoring Confederate generals raises questions about student rights, educational equity and local heritage.

06/08/2026

No mention of the School Board's decision to revert to Confederate school names and the looming judge's ruling on the Constitutionality of those names. That self-created distraction has as much potential to slow educational facilities decisions.