Grace Episcopal Church, Walker's Parish, is approaching its 300th anniversary. Our church's founders include a number of prominent men who have influenced our nation's destiny and whose history is well documented, but the stories of the African American community in the area and their contributions to our local life, economy and history are less well known.

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Stimulated by the tragic and historic events in 2017 in Charlottesville and 2020 in our nation, we committed to learning more, and adding to the knowledge of the history of our community. In 2020, the Vestry organized a group to meet via Zoom to discuss how Grace could respond to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives, ministries, and community. The task force named itself “Building Bridges to Understanding: A Task Force Exploring Race, Faith, and Community”. Members adopted the Sacred Ground  series offered by the Episcopal Church, and completed the curriculum in 2021. Sacred Ground was the subject of an article in U.S. News and World Report.

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The African American History Project (AAHP) began with a small committee of church and community members researching published and unpublished books, documents and collecting oral histories. Our research began in the spring of 2020 to take a deeper look at our recorded history and to search for links of our connections to the local black community and churches.

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We gratefully acknowledge the following individuals for their help in this project:
Ashley M. Williams, Marieka Williams, Becky Kinney, Dennis Morris- St. John Baptist Church;
Julia Randle, Historiographer- The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
Otto T. Bates-Rose Hill Baptist Church;
Rev. G. Miles Smith, Elizabeth H. Sutton, Kathie Woods, Cathy Bodkin, Hugh Gildea, Lee Gildea, Corky Shackelford, Suzanne Nash- Grace Church
 
Authors:
Barclay Rives, Grace Church and author of A History of Grace Church, Walker's Parish
Niya M. Bates, Zion Hill Baptist Church, author of Blurred Lines
Dr. Michael Dickens, Christ Episcopal Church, author of Like an Evening Gone, History of Christ Episcopal Church,  Charlottesville, VA
Lorenzo Dickerson, St. John Baptist Church, Director, St. John Family Life and Fitness Center, Maupintown Media
Dr. Shelley Murphy, Professor University of Virginia, Director of the Albemarle County Historical Society​​