This Week in Virginia History

This week in 1958… Virginia Governor J. Lindsay Almond ordered the closure of Lane High School and Venable Elementary in Charlottesville.

This week in 1732… Fourth U.S. President James Madison never wrote about his grandfather Ambrose. Which is surprising because Grandpa Ambrose was murdered by his slaves. Or so the court said.

This week in 1849... Charles Stearns and Henry Box Brown published a book with the rather long-winded title: "Narrative of Henry Box Brown, who escaped from slavery, enclosed in a box three feet long, two wide and two and a half high."

This week in 1814… President James and Dolley Madison and their slaves escape the White House as the British invade and burn Washington, DC. As first lady, Dolley Madison had been a much-celebrated hostess. Even today, she is known for rescuing a portrait of George Washington from the fire. But a firsthand account from one of the Madisons' slaves tells a different story.

This week in 1865… The University of Virginia names Charles Venable chair of the mathematics department. But his concerns extended beyond mathematics... For three and a half decades, Venable played a central role in constructing the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.

This week in 2017... White supremacists rally around the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville. One of them runs his car through a crowd of counter-protestors, killing one person and injuring at least 19 others.

This week in 1963... Eleven people were arrested in downtown Farmville for parading without a permit. They were demanding an end to segregation and that public schools reopen.