History Lesson in 3-D

Talk about a timely topic.

Today the Library of Virginia opened a new exhibit, "Remaking Virginia: Transformation through Emancipation," so I walked myself down there for a look-see and some lunch.

The overarching theme of the exhibit was simple: freedom for the half million slaves in Virginia after the Civil War should  have meant something more than just the absence of slavery. But it's Virginia and old white men's ways die hard.

Naturally, one of them opened the exhibit because you can't really talk about emancipation without starting with Abe.  On display was a life mask of Lincoln, a reproduction done by VCU Arts using a 3-D printer from the original in the National Portrait Gallery. Very cool.

A blowup of a photograph of the Freedmen's Village at Greene Heights in Arlington showed a rustic-looking village that must have seemed like the promised land after slave quarters. The handwritten register of Colored Persons Co-habitating was a testament to legislation to legalize the marriages of blacks who'd been unable to legally marry as slaves.

An engraving, "The First Vote" showed a line of black men casting their ballots and nearby (under glass of course) sat a green ballot box marked "colored." Gee, I bet that box never got "mislaid." I also saw handwritten labor agreements between landowners and freedmen, negotiated by local freedmen's bureaus

The exhibit was very good about using both the term "freedmen" and "freedwomen" to indicate that emancipation effected both sexes. A display about Mary Smith Kelsey Peake said she'd been born free in Norfolk and worked in Hampton as a dressmaker with her husband until Confederates burned their house down. Taking refuge at Fort Monroe along with thousands of escaped slaves, she'd begun teaching adults and children under an oak at the fort that became known as the emancipation oak.

They sure didn't teach us about people like her in history class, but hopefully they do today.

A map of Jefferson Township in Arlington where blacks and whites lived together showed the political gerrymandering done to create voting districts segregated by race. The crazy configurations of the districts makes it obvious what they were trying to do (and getting away with).

Another thing I learned was that for a very long time, black churches had been required to have a white minister, something that only began to change with emancipation.

One thing the exhibit made clear was that Virginia has little to be proud of when it comes to how we assimilated former slaves into society as the old guard fought full citizenship, education opportunities and political participation. Ours was a commonwealth slow as a snail to accept change.

Afterwards, enjoying a salad at the Discovery Cafe, I overheard a tour group going through the exhibit, the group's leader explaining in summary all the things I'd spent the last hour absorbing.

Any way people can get the information is fine, because learning Virginia's past can only help us going forward. Transformation is a slow process, Virginia.