His-Story Her-Story Our Story Do you know our history? Did we ever create, own, operate, and grow our own businesses? Did we ever invent, manufacture, warehouse, and distribute our products and services? Were we ever great thinkers, historians, scientists, researchers, etc? Did we ever create, manage, and grow a community? Were we ever great soldiers and warriors? Were we ever great legislators who possessed the highest level acumen? Do the answers to all these questions exist in America, in Virginia, in Newport News? Are there verifiable answers to these and many more questions? Welcome to the African American Historical Society of Newport News (AAHSNN)  |
Education: Schools, Teachers, Administrators, and Staff
The Early Years
"For the present it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whales in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above, all, confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!" (Fredrick Douglas July 05, 1852)
|
Religion: Places of Worship, Ministers, and Events
|
In African American segregated neighborhoods across America, the Black Church, is held in high esteem and was the focal point of the community in the early 1800’s and 1900’s and remain the focal point today. The founder and organizer of the United House of Prayer for All People of the Church on the Rock of the Apostolic Faith built the first House of Prayer in America in 1919 in West Wareham, Massachusetts for $39.00 dollars with his hands. The arrival of Marcelino Manuel de Graca, widely known as Sweet Daddy Grace, captured the hearts, minds, and souls of the people. The early pioneers of the Faith, simply from a touch or look were true believers. |  |
 | The House of Prayer exist today as a national beacon of inspiration throughout the United States of America, particularly in African American neighborhoods from Buffalo, NY to Miami, Florida and as far west as Los Angeles, CA and throughout the Midwest, from Detroit, MI to St. Louis, MO with more than 151 churches in 32 states. The United House of Prayer started in Newport News, Virginia in 1926, on ground known as “Blood Field” because of the numerous shootings and raucous reputation of the area,it was transformed to an area where serving God was the focus despite the neighborhood. The House of Prayer quickly established itself as a place where serving God was first and foremost, nothing came before one’s duty to God. Not family or friends. Not one’s self. Individuals joining the House of Prayer were criticized in the news, in the neighborhoods, in the schools and even by their non-House of Prayer family members and friends. |
Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux was born on November 7, 1884, to John and May Blanche Michaux in Newport News, Virginia. Young Lightfoot attended John Marshall Elementary School, where his formal education probably ended at an early age; however, he remained a life-long student who continued to study both independently and, later with the aid of private tutors. The Michaux family was in the seafood business and young Lightfoot became an astute business person, who operated his own business at an early age. He also operated a dance school where he met his future wife, Mary Eliza Pauline, whom he married around 1906. By 1911, the couple had built their own beachfront home on Pinkett’s (aka Pinky’s) Beach, on Ivy Avenue in Newport News. By 1917, Lightfoot had become a prosperous businessman, working in Tidewater, Virginia, and securing large government contracts. As a result of one of these contracts, he worked in Hopewell, Virginia, where both he, and later his wife, temporarily moved to supply the military at Fort Lee with seafood. In Hopewell, Mrs. Michaux persuaded her husband to have a small church built where she could teach the Bible and invite ministers to preach. The church, Everybody’s Mission, was built by a 75-year old parishioner, Brother Stiffe. At about that time, Mr. Michaux, who was already studying the Bible, became convinced that God had another purpose for his life: that of making him a fisher of men. Apparently, this purpose was reiterated by another parishioner, Brother Diaz, who told him “The Lord had you build the church, and you try to get everybody else to preach. But He wants you to do the job.” Mr. Michaux, himself, became more convinced of God’s calling when he read St. John 4:35-36: Say ye not there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields: for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth, receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he the reapeth may rejoice together. Secure in the knowledge of his calling into the ministry, Mr. Michaux began to preach. With the end of World War I, and the end of the government contract, Elder and Mrs. Michaux returned to their home in Newport News, Virginia, in 1919. |
Centennial Culmination Baptismal Service
Industry: Newport News Shipbuilding, Small Business, Hospitals, and Railroads, Longshoremen |
Image 1: NN SHIPYARD The Newport News Shipbuilding is Virginia’s largest industrial employer and a core component of the local economy. Located on the southeastern tip of the Peninsula, the company began operations in 1886. Founded by railroad magnate Collis Potter Huntington, the shipyard employs more than 20,000 people and is home to Virginia’s largest labor union, United Steelworkers Local 8888. | Image 2: HOSPITALS Pioneering black surgeon prevailed with perseverance!!! Surgeon C. Waldo Scott was already an acknowledged leader in the civil rights struggle when he met with this group of black Scouts in 1960. | Image 3: RAILROADS These gadgets have been placed in a 4-column layout. For each gadget, a background color was selected, and the gadget style was set to None. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod. | Image 4: MILITARY These gadgets have been placed in a 4-column layout. For each gadget, a background color was selected, and the gadget style was set to None. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod. |
Recreation & Entertainment: Beaches, Parks, Arts, and Music |
Library services in Newport News began with the dedication of the West Avenue Library in 1929, however this facility was not open to the local African American community. On May 9, 1949, W. Hale Thompson, a prominent African American attorney and local official with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, went before City Council and proposed that the library on West Avenue be open to residents of all races. City Manager |
Library services in Newport News began with the dedication of the West Avenue Library in 1929, however this facility was not open to the local African American community. On May 9, 1949, W. Hale Thompson, a prominent African American attorney and local official with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, went before City Council and proposed that the library on West Avenue be open to residents of all races. City Manager |
Civic & Community Affairs: Organizations, People, and Events |
We Are Community
Library services in Newport News began with the dedication of the West Avenue Library in 1929, however this facility was not open to the local African American community. On May 9, 1949, W. Hale Thompson, a prominent African American attorney and local official with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, went before City Council and proposed that the library on West Avenue be open to residents of all races. City Manager Joseph C. Biggins responded by establishing a branch library inside the Dorie Miller Recreation Center at 911 31st Street, also known as the Negro Recreational Building, in the Southeast Community. Branch No. 1, a room on the second floor of the building, was established with 2,000 volumes. W. Hale Thompson returned to City Council on March 27, 1950 to again petition to allow “unrestricted use of Newport News Public Library for whites and Negroes.” He argued that Branch No. 1 did not provide equal resources or services to its African American residents. City Council called blacks ungrateful and argued that there was no racial discrimination in the library system. Undeterred, Thompson filed suit against the city and Newport News Public Library, Inc. in the U.S. District for the Eastern District of Virginia. On July 8, 1952, two days before the trial was set to begin, the library issued a statement declaring the West Avenue Library open “to all adult inhabitants of the City of Newport News,” effectively integrating the library system. In 1970, Branch No. 1 was renamed to Wickham Avenue Branch Library. In 1974, the Wickham Avenue Branch Library moved to 2410 Wickham Avenue. It was a one-room facility with only a fraction of the holdings of the rest of the library system. In 1985, a new 12,000 sq. foot facility at 2510 Wickham Avenue was dedicated with enough space to hold 56,000 volumes. It was named Pearl Bailey Branch Library in honor of the famous entertainer who was born in Newport News. Source: From the People, For the People: The Newport News Libraries the First Century by James M. Morris and Margaret S. Moseley, 1991 |
| "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground." Select the Play button to listen to a brief history of the African American Citizens of Newport News. |