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Roses in December: Black Life in Hanover County from Civil War to Civil Rights promotional image
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Roses in December: Black Life in Hanover County from Civil War to Civil Rights

Lecture History

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Roses in December is a story of strength, courage, and beauty found in difficult times and the most challenging of circumstances. Beginning in the era of Reconstruction and ending with desegregation, Jody Lynn Allen chronicles the lives of newly freed people and their descendants in Hanover County, Virginia, providing an unprecedented look at rural Black Virginians’ resilience after disfranchisement. In the century between 1865 and 1965, Black residents of Hanover County embraced liberty as they organized for education, employment, and religious freedom, and built a community that flourished in the face of white retrenchment and day-to-day oppression. In this at times poignant, at times funny, and always powerful book, Allen’s attention to local, community level history offers an overlooked yet vital perspective of the civil rights movement in the rural South.

Jody Lynn Allen is Assistant Professor of History and Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation at the College of William & Mary. Her research interests cover the U.S. Civil War through the Long Civil Rights Movement focusing on Black agency. Jody is the author and co-author of sever scholarly essays and the author of Roses in December: Black Life in Hanover County from Civil War to Civil Rights.

Roses in December is a story of strength, courage, and beauty found in difficult times and the most challenging of circumstances. Beginning in the era of Reconstruction and ending with desegregation, Jody Lynn Allen chronicles the lives of newly freed people and their descendants in Hanover County, Virginia, providing an unprecedented look at rural Black Virginians’ resilience after disfranchisement. In the century between 1865 and 1965, Black residents of Hanover County embraced liberty as they organized for education, employment, and religious freedom, and built a community that flourished in the face of white retrenchment and day-to-day oppression. In this at times poignant, at times funny, and always powerful book, Allen’s attention to local, community level history offers an overlooked yet vital perspective of the civil rights movement in the rural South.

Jody Lynn Allen is Assistant Professor of History and Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation at the College of William & Mary. Her research interests cover the U.S. Civil War through the Long Civil Rights Movement focusing on Black agency. Jody is the author and co-author of sever scholarly essays and the author of Roses in December: Black Life in Hanover County from Civil War to Civil Rights.

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The Virginia Museum of History & Culture was founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical Society. The oldest museum in Virginia and one of the oldest in the United States, the VMHC has devoted nearly two centuries to collecting and preserving the artifacts of our past to share the far-reaching history of the Commonwealth of Virginia with the world. Today, this nationally respected museum and research organization cares for a renowned history collection totaling more than nine million items and engages hundreds of thousands of Virginians and other guests annually.
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