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Christiansburg in Montgomery County, Virginia — The American South (Mid-Atlantic)
 

Community Life

African Americans in Montgomery County

 
 
Community Life Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Duane and Tracy Marsteller, October 22, 2022
1. Community Life Marker
Inscription. The African American Memory & Storyboard Project is a partnership of Christiansburg Institute Inc., Montgomery Museum of Art & History, and the community to memorialize the sometimes challenging, often joyful history of African Americans in Montgomery County.

Wake Forest was a self-sufficient community settled by descendants of more than one hundred enslaved people who labored on Kentland Plantation. The Fears-Jones-Eaves Coal Company was the only Black-owned coal mine in the area.

African Americans in Radford and the surrounding counties proudly served in the American military, participating in the Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, the Korean and Vietnam wars. Albert Hunter served in one of only two all-Black combat units in World War I.

Christiansburg Industrial Institute (CII) was the only secondary school for African Americans in the region. Its 185-acre farm campus educated generations of students from 1866-1966.

Black entrepreneurs such as the Campbell family and brothers, S.B. and Burrell Morgan, operated successful businesses and built homes, lodges and churches in the Depot Street neighborhood.

Schaffer Memorial Church was founded in 1867. Next door is the brick Hill School building that in 1885 replaced the log school founded in 1866.

Mt.
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Airy United Methodist Church
was started by 1870 along with a school later known as Piney Woods. The school was replaced in the early twentieth century with a Rosenwald School.

A community of the formerly enslaved established High Rock school and church near Pilot in 1869. The cemetery predate Emancipation, with burials from at least 1855.

New Town was home to about twenty families until the early 1970s. St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall, built in the 1870s, served for over sixty years as a public gathering place and center for social life.

St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church began in Blacksburg in 1857. The church was instrumental in the local Civil Rights movement, serving as a hub for local freedom fighters.

After Emancipation, Gordon and Nellie Mills purchased a farm where they also offered refreshments and tours of the cave on the property. When the dirt road through the property was paved, against the family's wishes, it was named Nellie's Cave Road.

The community in the Brake Branch area of Elliston worshipped in the Big Spring Baptist Church, gathered at an Odd Fellows hall, and educated their children at the local grade school.

Yellow Sulphur Springs resort (closed 1923) was reopened in 1926 by African American businessmen. Billed as “America's Greatest Colored Resort,” it
Community Life Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Duane and Tracy Marsteller, October 22, 2022
2. Community Life Marker
Featured marker is on the right.
saw some success before closing in 1929.

Many African American men in Shawsville were employed by the railroad. The community was served by the First Baptist Church and a Rosenwald School.

A community was established near Alleghany Springs Hotel c. 1870. Charles B. Williams, a CII graduate noted as an “exceptional giant,” led the community's one room school.

For additional information see www.christiansburginstitute.com or www.montgomerymuseum.org. Photos are courtesy of Christiansburg Institute, Inc., Montgomery Museum of Art & History, Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives, Ginger Wagner and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (gift of Dr. and Mrs. Richard M. Kain in memory of George Hay Kain.
 
Erected by Christiansburg Institute Inc. • Montgomery Museum of Art & History.
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: African Americans. A significant historical year for this entry is 1867.
 
Location. 37° 7.806′ N, 80° 24.528′ W. Marker is in Christiansburg, Virginia, in Montgomery County. Marker is at the intersection of East Main Street (U.S. 11) and North Franklin Street, on the right when traveling west on East Main Street. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 4 E Main St, Christiansburg VA 24073, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within
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walking distance of this marker. Education (here, next to this marker); Slavery (here, next to this marker); Confederate Christiansburg (here, next to this marker); Montgomery County Confederate Monument (a few steps from this marker); Lewis-McHenry Duel (within shouting distance of this marker); Montgomery County War Memorial (within shouting distance of this marker); Christiansburg Presbyterian Church (approx. 0.2 miles away); The Oaks (approx. 0.3 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Christiansburg.
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on November 3, 2022. It was originally submitted on November 3, 2022, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This page has been viewed 76 times since then and 8 times this year. Photos:   1, 2. submitted on November 3, 2022, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

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Mar. 29, 2024