Balch Library Has a Black History Focus

Balch Library Has a Black History Focus

By Joe Motheral

The Thomas Balch Library has a long and distinguished past, going back to 1907 as a primary source of history in Loudoun County presently under the auspices of the Town of Leesburg.

The library building was named in honor of Leesburg resident Thomas Balch (1821-1877), a historian and “father of international arbitration.” One of its most significant features is the library’s Black History Committee. The Friends of the Balch Library started in 1995 to add financial support for the library, and five years later, the Black History Committee was formed.

Donna Bohanon

Donna Bohanon, the current chair of the Black History Committee, said her “responsibility is to coordinate the members in participating in our mission to collect, share and preserve the history of AfricanAmericans in Loudoun County and beyond.”

Accordingly, the “membership is approximately 30 people, 15 being active that attend general meetings on a monthly basis. Our membership is very diverse in terms of their interests in preservation. Just about all of our members are members of other organizations within Loudoun County that are involved in historic preservation or historical research.”

Bohanon recalled one particular piece of fascinating history she discovered in “the very first publication of “The Essence of the People” (newspaper) about the Delegates of a 1883 meeting of 17 men representing African American communities throughout Loudoun County.

“They got together to petition the court to request the right to serve as jurors and election officials. The petition, delegate name and the area they represented were printed in the newspaper. The judge ruled they could serve as jurors but not election officials. Despite this ruling, it was not until the 1970s when an African American served on a county jury.”

She said her own personal experiences strengthened her interest in the library’s Black History Committee.

“Being a black person who understands my own family history, reading the stories in Black History Committee publications, I was able to recognize and relate to the people in those histories because they remind me of my own family.

“We help people who are looking to find family history and genealogy. You can come to the Balch Library and explore the collection to extract from that collection a history of Loudoun county and the region, and the nation.”

Once the Black History Committee became connected to the Friends of the Library, a room was dedicated to Howard W. Clark, Sr. of Hamilton, one of the founders of the Loudoun County Emancipation Association. One anonymous donor gave $50,000 to expand the library, requesting a room to be named after an African American Loudoun resident.

Bohanon is a graduate of Catholic University with a degree in political science and joined the Black History Committee in the early 2000s. A financial and policy manager at the State Department, she became its chair in 2014. She also has completed the NOVA Public History and Historic Preservation Certificate Program and serves on the board of several historic preservation organizations in Loudoun County.

“We help people who are looking to find family history and genealogy,” she said. “You can come to the Balch Library and explore the collection to extract from that collection a history of Loudoun county and the region, and the nation.”