Hampton History Museum offers insights into city’s past during Black History Month

HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) – During Black History Month, the Hampton History Museum shared important events from the City of Hampton.

Historian and Museum Aide Willow Pell spoke to Digital Host Sarah Goode at the Digital Desk in a livestream. Watch the full conversation in the video player on this page.

“As far as Black History goes, Hampton is a wealth of historical firsts and events with national and state significance from the first arrival of Africans in 1619 all the way up to present day,” Pell said.

Aberdeen Gardens

The Aberdeen Gardens neighborhood began in 1934.

According to Pell, Hampton Institute submitted a request to the United States government to the Resettlement Association to create a homestead, a planned community in Hampton that would cater to Black workers.

“This was a significant project because it was the only one in the country at the time built by Black residents for Black residents that succeeded in that goal,” Pell said.

Other neighborhood plans across the country failed because backlash cancelled the project or converted the project into whites-only segregated housing.

With the support of the Hampton Institute, Resettlement Association and local community, it managed to become a project unlike anything in the country at the time.

Here are images from the Hampton History Museum of the neighborhood, below:

The Historical Foundation of Aberdeen Gardens is a non-profit focused on preserving, restoring, protecting and promoting the historical Aberdeen Gardens.

Aberdeen Gardens Historic Museum, located at 55 N. Mary Peake Boulevard, was dedicated in 2002 and shows an original home with furnishings that were donated by residents.

According to the website, “The museum house represents a pivotal time in American history when the African American working class had little. This community–and the museum representing it–is a symbol of hope and prosperity.”

The neighborhood is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places.

Visit aberdeengardensfoundation.org to learn more about the history and future of the historic Aberdeen Gardens.

Hampton Institute civil rights demonstrations

Feb. 1, 1960 was the first Greensboro lunch counter sit-in in North Carolina.

The students at Hampton Institute organized the sit-ins inspired by and in solidarity with the Greensboro students.

Ten days after the first Greensboro lunch counter sit-in, students at Hampton Institute organized the first sit-in demonstration in Virginia on Feb. 10, 1960 at the Woolworth’s in downtown Hampton.

Students sat at counters and practiced non-violent demonstrations, coming in shifts of dozens then hundreds of students.

“This was very important for the role of student activists in the civil rights movement,” Pell said.

The demonstrations continued for weeks. They were followed by other student-led activities in Hampton in the early 1960s.

Click here to find the Hampton History Museum’s Hampton Sit-In Oral History Project. Twelve interviews detail the February 1960 sit-in and following civil rights demonstrations of Hampton Institute students.

Hampton History Museum

The Hampton History Museum is located at 120 Old Hampton Lane. It is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Current Galleries include 1619: African Arrival Exhibit, NASA: Hampton Takes Flight, Exploring NASA’s ‘Human Computers’ and more. To browse online resources and collections, click here.

Tickets are required to visit: $5 for adults, $4 for children (4-12), and free for children under 4. Military, NASA, Seniors and groups are offered discounted rates. Click here to find out more.