Discover Loudoun's Black History Through its Artists and Entrepreneurs

BY VISIT LOUDOUN

Walk west down Leesburg’s Market Steet from the bustling King Street intersection and an incredible sight comes into view on the wall of the Loudoun Museum: a giant, brightly colored mural depicting Bazil Newman, a Black 19th century Loudoun landowner and ferry business operator, taking a young Black boy across the Potomac River to Maryland on a moonlit night, Newman’s brother looking on. Revered Loudoun abolitionist Leonard Grimes observes from the riverbank.

Titled “The Journey to Freedom” and officially unveiled on Jan. 16 in time for Black History Month, the work by celebrated Washington, DC, artist Shawn Perkins is the latest in a series of recent murals and historical markers depicting the rich Black history of Loudoun.

“I’m a native of Loudoun and growing up I never saw any artwork that showed Black history,” said Carmen Felder, co-founder and director of the nonprofit 89 Ways to Give that helped commission and fund the piece. “This is one of many Black history murals we want to work on.”

These days visitors and residents hoping to celebrate Loudoun’s Black history have a lot more to see.

A short walk east of the museum, on the walls of the public garage on Lassiter Way, murals by local artist Kim P. Kim depict two beloved Black Leesburg business owners: Robinson’s Barbershop proprietor and U.S. Marine Nelson “Mutt” Lassiter who passed away in 2020 at age 83, and Marie Medley-Howard, said to be the first African American woman to own a business in town, a beauty salon.

Lassiter and Medley-Howard are pioneering forerunners to the many Black-owned businesses now in Loudoun—everything from bakeries and boutiques to sneaker stores and five-star resorts—that make the county such a welcoming and diverse place to live today. It's not only murals in Loudoun that are honoring Black heritage.

In September, on Loudoun’s eastern border, the historic Oak Grove community built and developed by African Americans in the late 19th Century after they purchased their own land following emancipation, received the first commemorative sign on the new “Journey to Freedom Heritage Trails.”

The trail is set to incorporate other Black Loudoun landmarks including the Settle-Dean Cabin in Chantilly and the African American Cemetery for the Enslaved at Belmont (the largest cemetery for enslaved people in Loudoun), ultimately creating a countywide African American heritage trail.

In the meantime, make sure to see Loudoun’s public art, support its many Black-owned businesses and get out and discover Oak Grove and other sites and landmarks that commemorate the county’s rich African American history.