MARCH 2025 Edition
In Remembrance of Joseph McCoy, please join us April 23, 2025 to hear Robert P. Jones, author of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future, speak about the place we find ourselves, Between History and Hope at 6 p.m. at Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church at 606 S. Washington Street. All are welcome to attend!
History, Truth, and a Way Forward Together
In the Fall, the new history standards that sparked controversy two years ago, before being painstakingly rewritten line-by-line by members of the State Board of Education (SBE), will be taught in Virginia classrooms. In preparation, history teachers reviewing an online version of the standards noticed that Indigenous People’s Day, a state-recognized holiday, had gone missing.
The holiday’s addition to the proposed history standards became one of many points of contention in 2023 after a then-new superintendent of public instruction threw those standards out and asked a consultant to rewrite them. The revised draft standards omitted the holiday in favor of Columbus Day.
The SBE solved the controversy by keeping both in the standards, writing that K-3 students were expected to be able to “apply history and social science skills” to show the ways communities honor state and national traditions including “Columbus Day (also known as Indigenous Peoples’ Day).”
In the online version of the standards the parenthetical was missing. After citizens called attention to the deletion, the VDOE reviewed the recording of the SBE meeting that discussed and approved the standards and added the wording back.
Unfortunately, the deletion, whether intentional or not, is no surprise. The support of a narrative that promotes whiteness has left gaping holes in our state’s and nation’s story. To fill in the holes, Virginia students have to use precious electives, courses outside the core curriculum, such as band and art, if they wish to learn about African American History, Women’s studies, and Native American and Indigenous People’s history. While studying U.S. History is required to graduate from Virginia public schools, the others are not. The uproar over the proposed changes to Virginia History Standards had a lot to do with arguments for including these stories in the dominant narrative.
Robert P. Jones, who will be speaking in Remembrance of Joseph McCoy on Wednesday, April 23, has said that siloing history - which some marginalized groups advocate for - allows white people to ignore - at the peril of our democracy - the rest of our story. It fractures the truth and along with it, our communities and relationships. It leaves us strangers without a sense of moral obligation to one another.
“The compartmentalization of history has some advantages for specific people groups, in so far as it centers their particular struggle for justice. But the real beneficiaries of siloed history are white Christian people. These stories told in isolation fracture the historical gaze among the victims of violence, theft, slavery and oppression. Even well-intentioned accounts told in this way, encourage a partial reckoning.”
That’s because the source of whiteness, the source of the so-called “Indian Problem” and the so-called “Negro Problem,” are the same - all are rooted in the Doctrine of Discovery, according to Jones, who also holds a Masters in Divinity.
In The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future, Jones traces this nation’s origin story to June 18, 1452, when Pope Nicolas V gave the European Kings the right to invade, capture, subdue pagans, assume their lands and possessions, and “reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.” That’s how far back the white European world-view reaches and that is how it was grafted onto American Christianity - via the Doctrine of Discovery.
It is also why after many Americans began to wake from a collective state of historical amnesia and began debunking myths and acknowledging truth, reprisals whipped across the nation.
Adam Russel Taylor recently wrote in Sojourners that he “badly underestimated the backlash that followed the racial awakening of 2020 - and how durable the forces of grievance, fear, and economic dislocation have become.”
Some of these grievances and fears are based on experience, but many more are the result of lies that feel like truth because they evoke myths embedded in history that contribute to our world view.
“To abandon facts is to abandon freedom,” said Timothy Snyder, a Historian, who wrote On Tyranny. Snyder explains, when we choose what we want to believe is true over reality, we give up freedom. Likewise, when people are lied to in order to get them to reject facts and question information that has been vetted by publications committed to ethical standards, then they lose the ability to discern truth. “If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so,” states Snyder.
But there is a shared path forward - by working together to reveal the truth about Alexandria’s shared past - we can heal relationships and restore our communities and commitments to one another. A factual, not mythical, retelling of Alexandria’s history that integrates the stories of the diverse people who make up this city is a necessary first step. We are all in this life, this country, this world, this story together. Let’s use the past as a foundation to build a bridge to a future multiracial, pluralistic democracy.
Upcoming Events
In Remembrance of Joseph McCoy
Between History and Hope, by Robert P. Jones
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
6-7:30 p.m.
Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church
606 S. Washington Street, Alexandria, Va.
Free
In Remembrance of Joseph McCoy join us at Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church, the home church for the McCoy family, to hear an address by leading scholar Robert P. Jones. The New York Times Best Selling author of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future, and President of the Public Religion Research Institute, Jones’ remarks will focus on the place we now find ourselves, “Between History and Hope.” We also look forward to hearing from Mayor Alyia Gaskins at this city-wide recognition and remembrance of the 1897 lynching of Alexandria native Joseph McCoy. A book signing in the Fellowship Hall will follow remarks. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
Please note: Roberts Memorial Church does not have a parking lot and it is located on S. Washington St. between Gibbon and Franklin Streets.
Meaningful Conversations: Living Resilience: Strengthening Networks for Healing Lives, for Peace and Protecting the Planet, Bina Nepram
Thursday, April 17, 2025
7 p.m.
Alexandria Black History Museum
Free
The meaningful conversations explore and celebrate the diversity of cultures and peoples in our area, address the attitudes and behaviors that still divide us, and seek remedies grounded in the recognition that we are one interconnected, interdependent human family. Join us as we hear from Bina Nepram, indigenous scholar, author and women’s rights activist, and author, on how we can strengthen our resilience and work together in defending human rights, protecting the planet, and advancing the cause of peace.
In the News
OPMH’s Concert for a Cause Donates to ACRP Memorial Scholarship Program
On a sunny Sunday afternoon in February, the Old Town Presbyterian Meeting House held a concert to raise money for ACRP’s Memorial Scholarship Program. The William & Mary College choir sang an array of classical pieces to a packed church on February 23rd and raised more than $7,300 for ACRP’s scholarships in the names of Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas. Beginning last year, ACRP through the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria provides two $3,000 scholarships to seniors at Alexandria City High School. In order to make this a sustaining scholarship program, we are trying to raise a total of $150,000. The donation from OPMH is a big help toward reaching that goal. Last year, OPMH gave $10,000 toward the program raised from their membership. That same year, the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Alexandria also gave $8,000 to the scholarship program. We are grateful to our faith community for their enduring commitment to this act of repair.
Confronting Whiteness Workshop
On Monday, March 10, ACRP’s Interfaith Initiative held a workshop with Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell on Confronting Whiteness: Seeing Beyond Colorblindness for Deeper Conversations on Race that was attended by more than 70 people. The two-hour event sparked interest in Dr. Boswell’s Confronting Whiteness course. The nine-week virtual course combines spiritual formation and antiracism training in small group settings. Over nine weeks, participants read and watch the work of Black authors, intellectuals and artists then gather for 90 minutes each week in a structured format to discuss what they have discovered in the readings and films. To find out more send an email to Dr. Ben Boswell at confrontwhiteness@gmail.com.
New! ACRP Committee of Inquiry into Post-Civil War Alexandria,
Volunteer Researchers Encouraged to Apply
ACRP will be launching a Committee of Inquiry in an effort to establish the definitive version of major incidents of injustice from the end of the Civil War to 1902. We are looking for researchers, to learn more about volunteering for this blue ribbon panel please go to our website. If you are interested in applying, please fill out this short application.
Committee Reports
The ACRP Steering Committee met on Mar. 12 at the Alexandria Black History Museum and heard updates on the work of the Interfaith Initiative, the Remembrance Students, and fundraising for the scholarships and operational funds. They also approved the plan for the Joseph McCoy Remembrance.
The Schools & Libraries Action Committee met on Feb. 26 to review the expected impact of current policies on Alexandria City Public Schools. They decided to begin an aggregated news feed for those who regularly attend meetings.
Alexandria Community Remembrance Project
The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project (ACRP) is a city-wide initiative dedicated to helping Alexandria understand its history of racial terror hate crimes and to work toward creating a welcoming community bound by equity and inclusion.
In Memoriam
Write "ACRP" in Comments on the donation form.
Office of Historic Alexandria
City of Alexandria, Virginia
ACRP@alexandriava.gov