Life in the Reservation Community

In the decades after the Civil War, formerly enslaved Black people joined free Black families to forge a community of landowners and entrepreneurs who supported each other, invested for the future, and built churches, schools, and community organizations. 

Explore the five themes below that illuminate the lives of the families who lived on the Reservation before their displacement by the U.S. government in 1918 to build what is now known as the Naval Weapons Station, Yorktown.