Manassas, Virginia — The American South (Mid-Atlantic)
Liberty Street
Photographed by Devry Becker Jones (CC0), November 30, 2019
1. Liberty Street Marker
Inscription.
Liberty Street. . In the post-Civil War years, African-Americans who were bound by a strong sense of community settled near the Brown School and the Manassas Industrial School on what was then known as Liberty Avenue. As early as 1895, African-Americans began buying tracts of land from Isaac Baldwin and building homes on Liberty Avenue and nearby Douglas Street. Carpenters, stone masons, laundresses, domestic servants, and government clerks settled here before the 1917 town ordinance that segregated housing for Manassas citizens. Non-whites were then prohibited from erecting or occupying any property bordering any of the town's avenues, streets or alleys, except west of Grant Avenue-South Lee Avenue and South Street (present day Prince William Street.) A Supreme Court decision soon overturned segregation ordinances that were widespread across the south and in northern cities.
In the post-Civil War years, African-Americans who were bound by a strong sense of community settled near the Brown School and the Manassas Industrial School on what was then known as Liberty Avenue. As early as 1895, African-Americans began buying tracts of land from Isaac Baldwin and building homes on Liberty Avenue and nearby Douglas Street. Carpenters, stone masons, laundresses, domestic servants, and government clerks settled here before the 1917 town ordinance that segregated housing for Manassas citizens. Non-whites were then prohibited from erecting or occupying any property bordering any of the town's avenues, streets or alleys, except west of Grant Avenue-South Lee Avenue and South Street (present day Prince William Street.) A Supreme Court decision soon overturned segregation ordinances that were widespread across the south and in northern cities.
Erected 2016 by Manassas Museum System, City of Manassas.
Location. 38° 44.956′ N, 77° 28.374′ W. Marker is in Manassas, Virginia. It is on Liberty Street south of Prince William Street
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, on the left when traveling south. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 9503 Liberty Street, Manassas VA 20110, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in the Washington Metropolitan Area and in Northern Virginia. It is also in the American South, specifically in the Upper South, and in the Mid-Atlantic. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region, North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture, one of the original Thirteen Colonies, one of the Confederate States of America, and the Antebellum South.
Another marker is no longer nearby. Wartime Manassas (was about 400 feet away but has been confirmed missing).
Additional keywords. Jim Crow, segregation
Photographed by Devry Becker Jones (CC0), November 30, 2019
2. Liberty Street Marker
Credits. This page was last revised on March 10, 2021. It was originally submitted on November 30, 2019, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 617 times since then and 31 times this year. Last updated on March 9, 2021, by Carl Gordon Moore Jr. of North East, Maryland. Photos:1, 2. submitted on November 30, 2019, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia.
