Edification and Activism: Community Engagement in Religious and Civic Spaces

Virginia Republican Party Flyer, 1921

The "Lily Black" Republican ticket of 1921 was in response to the all white ("Lily White") ticket put forward by the Republican party of Virginia. Neither Republican ticket won in 1921, as the Democratic party swept the elections. 

Maggie L. Walker (1864-1934) ran for the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction on the 1921 ticket. In 1903, Walker became the first woman in the U.S. to charter a bank when she founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Banks for the Independent Order of St. Look (a fraternal and cooperative insurance society).

Postcard [to Nettie Anderson], Household of Ruth, Blacksburg Odd Fellows Records, 1916

This postcard (click through to see front and back) was sent between two members of the Blacksburg chapter of the Household of Ruth, a women's auxiliary organization to the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows. The Odd Fellows, a mutual relief society for people of color, was a prominent gathering place for civic leaders in Blacksburg's African-American community.

Correspondence, Mrs F.N. Atkins [Blacksburg Woman's Club President] to Sargent Shriver,Washington, D.C., May 3, 1965 (Ms1963-002)

Letter sent by Mrs F.N. Atkins (Blacksburg Woman's Club President) to Sargent Shriver in the Office of Economic Opportunity (Washington D.C.) on May 3, 1965 expressing the support of the Blacksburg Woman's Club for the Montgomery-Floyd Community Action Organization's grant request to assist "disadvantaged families in this area."

Portrait, Cynthia Addington Boatwright, Big Stone Gap, VA, c. 1940s/1950s, (Ms1990-070)

Boatwright, a Wise County resident, was deeply involved in civic and political life at the municipal, regional, and state levels. She was active in Christian social relief work throughout the 1920s and 1930s, a member of the advisory council of the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, and the first woman in Wise County to run for public office (serving on Coeburn's town council from 1934-1938).

As president of the Virginia Federation of Women's Clubs, Boatwright coordinated extensive fundraising and service campaigns for Depression relief and the war effort. Boatwright was one of the first four women on the VPI-Radford College Board of Visitors during the campus merger, serving from 1944-1953.

St Johns Day: St Paul A.M.E. Church, Blacksburg, VA.

Religious organizations (and the service campaigns they directed) provided opportunities for women in the New Rivery Valley to organize and engage with their communities in meaningful ways. One of Blacksburg's oldest ecclesiastical institutions is St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal church, which is part of a rich local and national tradition of civic engagement. This photograph depicts an event at the church (n.d.) honoring St. John the Baptist, traditionally celebrated June 24.

Program and Menu, Diamond Jubilee Dinner, Col. William Christian Chapter, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Christiansburg, Virginia,1965 (Ms2014-013)