HAMPTON — A virtual archive telling the African-American story at Fort Monroe and Hampton is being established thanks to a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
State Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, a driving force behind the idea, announced its progress at an event held to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the decision to deem slaves who made it to Fort Monroe as contraband of war.
Locke said she spoke with members of the Fort Monroe Authority about the creation of the archive and put together a proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities to create a "virtual resource."
"What it will do is to tell further the contraband story which is critical to not just African-American history but also Civil War history and American history at large," said Locke who is also the dean of liberal arts at Hampton University.
Locke said last Tuesday's forum in which academics spoke about the significance of the contraband decision, was "just the beginning of the discussion."
"With this grant we hope to carry forth the discussion and create a resource that can go out, not just to people in this community, but across the country and across the world that will tell that story," said Locke.
Tuesday's panel discussion is likely to form part of the archive. It was held on the 150th anniversary of a meeting on Mill Creek Bridge outside Fort Monroe, in which Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler refused to return three escaped slaves to their Confederate master, saying they were "contraband of war" and would be treated like any other war material.
The panel featured Michael Cobb, curator of the Hampton History Museum; Colita Nichols-Fairfax of Norfolk State University; Robert F. Engs of the Penn History Department who is a visiting history professor at the College of William and Mary; Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander of Norfolk State University; and Dr. Tommy Bogger, director of archives at the Norfolk State University library.
Engs said many important African-American events are only now being recognized.
"Americans have not been very good at celebrating the Civil War," he said. "The 100th anniversary of the Civil War passed almost unnoticed because we were generally and literally fighting it over again in the streets of Birmingham and Selma and all over the south."
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