A program of Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
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Block the Vote

Controversy. October surprises. It's nothing new in Virginia. In time for Election Day, Encyclopedia Virginia has the story of how a streetfight in Danville, seventy-two hours before statewide elections in 1883 changed politics in the Commonwealth forever.

(Image courtesy of the Valentine. This jury pool, from 1867, is believed to be the first in Virginia to include African Americans.)

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Feel the 'Loving'

Loving, starring Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, was released on November 4. It tells the moving story of Richard and Mildred Loving and their desire to be married legally in Virginia. Want to brush up on the history? EV is your best bet.

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Talking History

Two of the encyclopedia's editors, Matthew Gibson (left) and Brendan Wolfe, appeared on WMRA radio last week to talk about the project's work on the post–Civil War years in Virginia. (Photo credit: Peter Hedlund)

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This Month in Virginia History

November 6, 1860: Abraham Lincoln, a Republican from Illinois, is elected U.S. president. He wins 1 percent of the vote in Virginia.

November 7, 1989: L. Douglas Wilder narrowly defeats Republican J. Marshall Coleman to become the first elected black governor in U.S. history.

November 11, 1839: The Virginia Military Institute in Lexington is founded on the site of a Virginia state arsenal.

November 12, 1925: In Buck v. Bell, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upholds the sterilization order of Carrie Buck. That ruling, in turn was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

November 15, 1805: The Lewis and Clark Expedition reaches the Pacific Ocean.

November 15, 1897: John Mercer Langston, the first African American elected to Congress from Virginia, dies at his home in Washington, D.C.

November 27, 1909: A group of women, including Kate Waller Barrett, Kante Langley Bosher, Adèle Clark, Ellen Glasgow, Nora Houston, Mary Johnston, and Lila Meade Valentine, found the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia.

 
 

One Last Thing

Don't forget to vote!