Preserving Black Appalachia

A program designed by a community ad hoc group to foster understanding and preservation of black culture in Montgomery County. A May symposium on "Black Religious History in Appalachian Virginia" featured historians and a theologian who spoke on the history of the Christiansburg
Industrial Institute, a Freedmen's school founded during the Reconstruction,
and the religious history of blacks in rural Virginia. The program also
included a photography exhibit on community buildings related to black
history. A February conference will include workshops on oral history, the development of local cultural centers and museums, and the preservation of artifacts associated with traditional Appalachian homelife.