3:00 pm
James River Conference Center

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE MUSEUM – 434.845.3455!

Featuring: FREED: Female Re-Enactors of Distinction
African American Ladies of the Civil War Auxiliary Organization of the African American Civil War Museum.

Dinner music generously donated by Apple Butter Soul.

This exhibit explores what life was like for African Americans in Central Virginia when trouble was in their lives, wreaking havoc in every possible way. Trouble for this region’s thousands of African American, enslaved and free, was the years before and during the Civil War.  This exhibit also explores how African Americans fared when trouble was over and always began. Always in this exhibit is the 25 years following the War, when freedom came and long-hoped for-opportunities began.

Dr. Swann-Wright (lright) explains artifacts to docents

On Saturday, August 4, Dianne Swann-Wright, curator for the Museum’s new exhibit, “Trouble Don’t Las Always” led a training session for museum docents. Dr. Swann-Wright explained how to give public tours to adults and children; the historic context for the exhibit, and how to talk about text panels, artifacts and exhibit themes. And, she led the participants through the exhibit and discussed each of the text panels and artifacts in detail. The group including members of the Legacy Project Board of directors,  ’seasoned’ docents, and three high school students  all of whom were able to put the information they learned to good use at the opening the next day.

Docents in training

The exhibit will be up for two years. The Museum is open from 12-4 Wednesday through Saturday; 2-4 on Sundays; and by special appointment.  For further information and to arrange for a special tour, please call Museum Administrator, Cheryl Robinson at 434-845-3455 or email legacymueum@verizon.net.

The exhibit highlights the African American pre and post-Civil War experiences as well as the experiences of African American activities during the War itself.  The exhibit will answer questions surrounding African American participation in the War. The exhibit also explores the types of work people undertook once free, how worship practices developed, the nature of daily life and early education.  Artifacts and photographic images illustrate the stories of African Americans living in Central Virginia. Dr. Dianne Swann-Wright, has curated this exhibit as well as eight of the previous Legacy exhibits. Stan Webb is the designer.

“Trouble Don’t Las’ Always,” is the eleventh major exhibition featured at the Legacy Museum which was founded twelve years ago by the Legacy Project, Inc.  The Legacy Project is a community 501c3 non-profit organization, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing the history and contributions of African Americans in Lynchburg and the surrounding counties of Amherst, Bedford, Appomattox, and Campbell.

The exhibit, sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities will be open for two years, ending on May 30, 2014.  Legacy has also received grants from the Virginia Tourism Commission and the Centra Foundation to support public outreach and special exhibit activities such as growing and maintaining a garden modeled after African American gardens of the Civil War Era.

While the exhibit is featured at Legacy, public programs will complement the exhibition. Information on upcoming events can be found at the Legacy Museum website or by calling museum administrator Cheryl Robinson at 434-845-3455; legacymuseum@verizon.net

Sunday, April 29, 2012, 3:00 pm

James River Conference Center; 400 Court Street; Lynchburg, VA

Speakers: The Honorable Shannon Valentine and Dr. Augustus A. Petticolas, Jr.

Price: $50.00 per person

An enthusiastic audience packed the Activity Center on Saturday, February 25 for an educational concert of  19^th c. African American music presented by musicians and teachers from  the Lynchburg Music Center.

As Tina Kepel –Young, Director of Education at the Center took the audience through the musical history of the period, musicians Jim Robertson and Corbin Hayslett illustrated her remarks with examples of field hollers, spirituals, blues, and hambone and explained the origin and construction of the instruments they played. These ranged from rustic mbiras (thumb pianos), gourd banjos, and bones to elegant fiddles and guitars as well as instruments contrived from common household  items like washboards, wash tubs, and jugs as well as the human voice and body.

Robertson plays the bones; Hayslett strums banjoMike Hayslett demonstrates wash tub bass

Corbin Hayslett demonstrates gourd banjo

The Legacy Museum’s eleventh annual exhibit, Trouble Don’t Las’ Always, curated by Dianne Swann Wright will explore and contrast what life was like for African Americans in Central Virginia when ‘Trouble’ ws in their lives and how they fared when trouble left and ‘always’ began.

This Civil War exhibit will focus on what filled African American minds, absorbed their labor, fueled their fears, dropped them to their knees to pray, and drew forth their creativity and wisdom.  It will explain how and why ‘hundreds’ of African American men fought against freedom when they had a chance. It will explore life and work in a place where slavery existed in fields, factories, and modes of transportation.  It will examine the ways in which the towns and countryside were and were not transformed once freedom came.

The artifacts and stories that comprise Legacy exhibits are compiled by a team of volunteer collectors who conduct oral history interviews with area residents and comb attics and photo albums for objects and images that tell the stories of Central Virginia African Americans. The kinds of artifacts that will be needed in this exhibit are existing registrations or free papers; any documents relating to slavery; any materials from African American households; toys; musical instruments; pre-1890 photos and Bibles.  Anyone with suitable items to lend or donate for the exhibit should call the Museum 434-845-3455.

antique cast iron waffle irona

Curator, Dianne Swann-Wright with doll made from a mid-19th c. quilt

Phyllistine Mosley explains the seven principles of Kwanzaa

Noah Teasley with his door hanger

Kwanzaa is an African American celebration of family, community, and culture that traces its origins to the first harvest festivals held throughout Africa. Its name is derived from the Swahili phrase for first fruits, ‘matunda ya kwanzaa’. It is celebrated through-out the African diaspora from December 26 through January 1.

Legacy celebrates Kwanzaa as part of its mission to stimulate an appreciation of the diversity of the African American experience.

At the craft workshop for children and families participants will learn about the seven principles of  Kwanzaa while they design and make Kwanzaa gifts using stamps of Ghanaian adinkra symbols.  The Open House on Sunday December 11 will feature information, displays of home decorations, and refreshments. Special Kwanzaa wreaths will be sold to benefit the Museum. The Museum featuring the retrospective exhibit, “Celebrating Commuity! The Legacy Museum’s First Ten Years’ will also be open at those times.

For information and reservations for the workshop, call the Museum at 434-845-3455.