HOW WE GOT HERE

In 1699 Williamsburg became the colonial capital of Virginia. The Virginia Colony was transitioning from a labor system that relied on indentured servants to one dependent upon race-based slavery. The forced labor of people of African ancestry and their descendants became the economic backbone of Virginia.

After more than 200 years and a brutal civil war, nearly 4 million enslaved African Americans were freed from the grip of slavery. However, race-based laws, practices and policies perpetuated systemic injustices and frequently prevented newly freed African Americans and their descendants from exercising their Constitutional rights under the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, including the right to vote and to enjoy equal protection under the law.

This report acknowledges that Williamsburg has participated in this history, and that racism has disadvantaged — and continues to disadvantage — people of African ancestry. It offers five recommendations, along with corresponding reparative actions, appropriate agencies, and desired outcomes.

We have taken a Restorative Justice¹ approach which calls on the City to:

• identify and acknowledge the harm and the City’s direct or indirect complicity in perpetrating harm;

• listen to and heed the voices of those harmed and affected and promote their leadership when crafting reparative remedies;

• implement reparative acts to right the wrongs and to help heal the racial divide.

During interviews with diverse community members aged 19 to 92, including men and women, members of the Descendant community² and others, we heard stories of repeated displacement of African American communities resulting in destruction of Black-owned businesses, communities, and multi-generational wealth. Residents described how segregation, microaggressions, and disparities in educational opportunities and disciplinary practices entrenched white supremacist attitudes and continue to cause harm.

Community members lamented the lack of affordable housing, underrepresentation of African Americans in leadership positions, barriers to accessing health care and community resources, and the pain of their experiences being erased from history. Here in the birthplace of world-changing ideas of freedom and democracy, the history of the people who once made up over 50% of the town’s population has too often been invisible and their descendants’ stories unvalued.

The Committee’s recommendations come directly from our research and interviews. Our goal is to help Williamsburg heal and work well for all of its residents. Just as reliving painful parts of history was difficult for community members, acknowledging Williamsburg’s racial history is not easy. But truth-telling is the necessary soil for seeds of healing and reconciliation to take root and blossom.