{"id":78723,"date":"2016-02-11T17:56:21","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T22:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/?p=78723"},"modified":"2016-04-29T15:48:10","modified_gmt":"2016-04-29T19:48:10","slug":"jackson-ward-the-safe-haven-of-a-segregated-homeplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/?p=78723","title":{"rendered":"Jackson Ward \u2013 The Safe Haven of a Segregated Homeplace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"By
Houses in Jackson Ward By Morgan Riley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Geography plays a large part in Provenance<\/em> as my characters search for a place to call home spans \u00a0\u00a0continents. However, the search begins in the Deep South, Richmond Virginia in the early 1900’s, only a few decades after the Civil War. Though African-Americans were freed from slavery, it would be decades before the law ensured their right to live free. So, African-Americans carved out safe havens for themselves; segregated communities were there they lived, loved, played, prayed and thrived, becoming the Homeplace for generations of black families. In Richmond, that place was Jackson Ward, a community on the edge of downtown.<\/p>\n

Jackson Ward, nicknamed the \u201cHarlem of the South,\u201d was the largest African American community in Richmond and the center for their commercial and entertainment activity. Because of segregation and in spite of it, communities like Jackson Ward thrived as a self-sustaining economy pulsing with black commerce including banks, retail stores, restaurants, real estate offices, barbers, hair salons and even a nationally renowned theater, the Hippodrome. African-Americans designed, built and lived in row and town homes that are now architecturally important for their cast iron porches and columns. They worshiped in churches that dated back to 1857 and, schools and a library educated the community\u2019s black residents. An armory built in 1895 in Jackson Ward is the oldest in the country built for African American troops.<\/p>\n

Jackson Ward, considered the \u201cWall Street of the South,\u201d had a thriving banking and insurance industry. Residents like John Mitchell, Jr.<\/a>, an early civil rights activist and editor of the Richmond Planet <\/em>newspaper,<\/em>\u00a0founded the Mechanics Savings Bank. Maggie L. Walker<\/a>, the first woman of any race to charter an American bank, Consolidated Bank & Trust, served as its president. She also founded the St. Luke\u2019s Penny Savings Bank, which helped more than 600 African-Americans become homeowners.<\/p>\n

\"JacksonIn Provenance<\/em>, Jackson Ward is home to Mrs. Delora \u2018Del\u2019 Holder, a character that resonates with so many readers. She is the moral center of the book, a well of wisdom and humanity that sustains a family in their most difficult time. Del\u2019s home and family in Jackson Ward are what sustained her. While Del is a fictional character, real places like Jackson Ward sustained people of color. In the relative safety of these segregated communities, though many were the target of racial violence, they nevertheless offered communal nurturing and concern that was not available elsewhere. They gave African-Americans an environment in which to exceed the potential others believed they did not have.<\/p>\n

Like many black communities, Jackson Ward was diminished, however not completely destroyed when, in the 1950\u2019s, it was divided during the construction of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway system. It was designated a National Historic Landmark district<\/a> in 1978 and is currently enjoying a resurgence. Maggie L. Walker\u2019s home is a\u00a0National Historic Site run by the Park Service<\/a> and there are historic walking tours through Jackson Square.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geography plays a large part in Provenance as my characters search for a place to call home spans \u00a0\u00a0continents. However, the search begins in the Deep South, Richmond Virginia in the early 1900’s, only a few decades after the Civil War. Though African-Americans were freed from slavery, it would be decades before the law ensured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[146,155],"tags":[150,159,158,124,156,157],"class_list":["post-78723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-african-american-history","category-black-history-month","tag-black-history-month","tag-jackson-ward","tag-maggie-walker","tag-provenance-by-donna-drew-sawyer","tag-richmond","tag-va"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78723"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78843,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78723\/revisions\/78843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}