Determined: The 400-Year Struggle for Black Equality

Determined presents a concise overview of Black history in Virginia from the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619 through the groundswell of racial justice protests of 2020. These four centuries encompass slavery and emancipation, segregation and the civil rights movement, the election of the first Black president and the rise of Black Lives Matter. Throughout this complex history, Black people have fought for freedom, justice, and opportunity and against oppression, discrimination, and dehumanization. Their efforts have brought meaningful changes to American society by forcing the nation to define the meaning of its highest ideals of democracy and universal equality. Arranged chronologically, this book explores 400 years of Black history through the stories of key figures and events in Virginia that shaped the fight for Black equity. A few of the individuals featured include John Punch, whose punishment for attempting to escape bondage in 1640 began the codification of a system of slavery that spread throughout the original Thirteen Colonies, and Nat Turner, who shocked the nation with a slave revolt in 1831 that challenged the institution of slavery. John Mitchell, Jr. was a journalist-editor who championed Black pride and civil rights in the Jim Crow era, and Barbara Johns led a student protest that became part of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the landmark Supreme Court decision dismantling legalized segregation. A new generation of activists like Zyahna Bryant continues the fight for racial equity today. Illustrations of historical artifacts and images bring to life these and other stories of Black determination and resistance. Determined focuses on Virginia, yet it tells an American story. Black people have shaped the nation’s economic, political, and cultural identity, and Virginia has played a formative and central role in national race relations. This book provides a timely reckoning with America’s fraught history with race and systemic racism. It fosters a greater understanding of the legacies of slavery, segregation, and white supremacy to meet the challenges of today and forge a better tomorrow.