For Immediate Release  
July 17, 2006
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Grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Will Facilitate
Awareness of This Critical Element of American Heritage

Waterford, Virginia – The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership has been awarded a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities to research, identify and interpret African American sites along the Journey Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG) to ensure this critical element of our American heritage is integrated into JTHG educational and outreach materials.

The grant, awarded in June 2006, will fund the JTHG Partnership’s project, “The Power of Place: Understanding the African American Experience in the Journey Through Hallowed Ground.”  Through the grant, the JTHG Partnership will conduct primary research and create a database of African-American heritage sites along the Journey and develop itineraries to encourage visitors to experience history in a more tangible way, supporting African American heritage tourism and genealogy.  

Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the JTHG Partnership, noted the significance of this project: “Understanding African American history helps us understand the fabric of our American culture and expands our understanding of ourselves as a people. However, much of African American history is just beginning to be documented on the local level. Consequently, we need special expertise and funding to bring this history to light and to ensure that the JTHG will be inclusive and consequently more accurate,” she said.

Research for the JTHG "Power of Place" project will be led by Dr. Deborah A. Lee, whose specializations include African American history and nineteenth century social and cultural history.  Dr. Lee is an independent scholar who has received many academic honors and is a public historian who has recently consulted with the Black History Committee of the Friends of the Thomas Balch Library, the Loudoun Museum, the Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County, the Westmoreland Davis Foundation, and the Shenandoah University History and Tourism Center.  In addition to work on documentary films and museum exhibits, her numerous publications have covered topics relating to African-Americans and 18th and 19th century American history.  Dr. Lee received her Ph.D. from George Mason University in 2003.

Dr. Lee says, “The Journey Through Hallowed Ground is amazingly rich in African American history, and I am excited about sharing my passion for it with the general public through the stories of people and places along the route.”

The Virginia Foundation on Humanities, who awarded the JTHG Partnership the grant, is "dedicated to promoting the humanities, and to using the humanities to address issues of broad public concern." The foundation's Grant Program supports organizations in Virginia, or those that will have an impact on a large population of Virginians, involved in areas of the humanities.

Ms. Magennis Wyatt added, “We are most grateful to the Virginia Foundation on Humanities for recognizing the importance of the ‘Power of Place’ project to African-American heritage, to the history of Virginia, and, indeed, to the heritage of every American.  We are equally grateful to VFH for understanding the valuable role that the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership plays in conducting original research and in bringing this history to life.”