Race and Place in Charlottesville
Listen to a Study Center tour of Charlottesville's history of race and racism interpreted through the streets, buildings, monuments, and spaces of Charlottesville’s university and downtown communities. Led by Study Center Board Chair and Professor of Architectural History, Louis Nelson, the series features interviews with local experts, public historians, and residents. This podcast is a production of the Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville, VA.
Episodes
25 episodes
Calling the Church
Still sitting in the Study Center library, Professor Nelson and Dayna Matthew's conversation moves from discussing the current state of racial inequity in Charlottesville to examining what the church can do next."Instead of just giving ...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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15:07
Where Are We Today?
At the end of his walking tour, Professor Nelson sits down with Dayna Mathew, William L. Matheson and Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor of Law at UVA, to discuss Charlottesville's current landscape of racial inequity. The episode end...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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20:24
Three Histories of the KKK
Professor Nelson expounds on three historical iterations of the Ku Klux Klan's presence in Charlottesville—including the August 11 and 12 rallies in 2017—and the impact the white supremacist group has had on the city's minority communities, inc...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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13:01
Acting Out the Lost Cause
Standing in front of the Downtown Mall's Jefferson Theater, Professor Nelson explores the ways in which the white citizens of Charlottesville looked back with great fondness on the way of life of the antebellum South—slavery included—through so...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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11:07
Vinegar Hill: Enfranchisement of Place
Professor Nelson continues to meditate on the history surrounding Charlottesville's Vinegar Hill neighborhood. As he stands in the parking lot that has come to replace the black-owned and -occupied homes and businesses, he expounds on the disen...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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5:53
Vinegar Hill: Eminent Domain
In this first episode of a two-part series, Professor Nelson explores the Vinegar Hill neighborhood: a once-vibrant African-American neighborhood located near Preston Avenue and Ridge/McIntire Road. Claimed by the Charlottesville government und...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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6:45
Remembering Integration
In this episode we take a tour of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center with its director, Andrea Douglas, as she traces the process of integration in the Charlottesville schooling system. Then, we rejoin Pat Edwards on her porc...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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9:24
Monumental Legacies
Professor Nelson concludes his walking tour with a powerful reflection on the monument of Stonewall Jackson, located in what is now called Court Square. "Adopting a framework of celebrating the peaceable city of Charlottesville and...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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10:19
Separate and Unequal
The landmark Supreme Court ruling Plessy v. Ferguson led to the state-sanctioned racial segregation of public facilities, as long as said facilities were "separate but equal." Today's stop on the tour explores the impact that ...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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10:02
The City Inside a City
Welcome to Starr Hill, Charlottesville's city inside a city. In response to the conditions of segregation, residents of this historically black neighborhood developed an economy of their own, complete with medical care, a daycare, and its own b...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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8:54
An Oral History of Starr Hill
Hidden between West Main Street and Preston Avenue, Charlottesville’s Starr Hill neighborhood has long been home to a thriving black middle class. In this episode, longtime resident Pat Edwards reminisces on the history of her beloved neighborh...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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14:55
Just After Reconstruction
Following the Civil War, Reconstruction promised newly freed black citizens the opportunity for freedom and agency in a new, integrated society. The Compromise of 1877 lead to the shattering of these promises. The effect of the making—and break...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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9:28
Property and Power
Journalist Jordy Yager joins Professor Nelson in the Study Center library to share his findings from research concerning Charlottesvillle's black citizens' access to property (and the power that comes with it) from the plantation era to today.&...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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10:37
Building Bridges
The Drewary Brown Bridge, which crosses the train tracks above the Amtrak, is named for one of Charlottesville’s most important African-American Civil Rights leaders. On this stop of the tour, Professor Nelson introduces us to Charlottesville’s...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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10:31
Eugenics at UVA
Still standing at the base of the George R. Clark monument, Professor Nelson explores how the University of Virginia medical school in the 20th century embraced the scientific movement of the day: the race-based science later known as eugenics....
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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9:27
Futility of Resistance
The "Race and Place in Charlottesville" tour leaves UVA Grounds to head toward the Downtown Mall. On the way there, stop at the base of the George R. Clark Monument, now standing at the intersection of West Main and Jefferson Park Ave. Discover...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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6:53
Digging Up Graves
Professor Nelson returns for the next stop of the "Race and Place in Charlottesville" tour: the site of the University of Virginia's Anatomical Theater. Once located near present-day Alderman Library, the Theater served as the stage for a 19th-...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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7:19
Archaeology at UVA
Take a break from the walking tour to sit down with archaeologist Benjamin Ford of Rivanna Archaeological Services, LLC, as he and Professor Nelson discuss what the University of Virginia's archaeological record has to tell us about the lives—a...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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13:03
Secret Gardens
Listener discretion is advised.The University of Virginia's serpentine walls that border its famous Gardens originally rose to an impressive eight feet tall. Learn more about the hard work that took place behind these walls dur...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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9:13
Hidden Stories at UVA
At surface level, the University of Virginia's Academical Village has always represented a landscape of opportunity, community, and academic possibility. Take a short flight of stairs from the Lawn, however, and you'll find a different story—th...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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10:56
Building the University
Thomas Jefferson has long been lauded as the architect of the University of Virginia's distinctive Academical Village. But what—or better, who—did it take to actually build it? See the Lawn with new eyes as we meet Sam McCarpenter, an enslaved ...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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11:54
The Second Slave Trade
Motivated by Jesus' command in Scripture to love our neighbors, Louis Nelson begins his "Race and Place in Charlottesville" tour with this statement: "We cannot possibly love our neighbor if we don't know our neighbor or know our neighbor's sto...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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10:04