Rev. James B. Tabb Sr.
Portrait of Church Leaders, Rev. Tabb on left in light colored suit
Photo courtesy: Jacqueline Bridgeforth Williams
House Joint Resolution No. 372 Honoring Rev. James B. Tabb
In 1996, the Virginia General Assembly passed House Joint Resolution No. 372 to honor Rev. James B. Tabb, Sr., the widely known pastor and orator who was active in the community and passionate about the people in it.
"I would say considering the type of schools that we had it was pretty good, but here again it would not have been for the colleges, the white colleges. Pretty good, cause the whole curriculum was a little different for the Black. For instance, at Bruton Heights, I think we had the diversified occupation - [if a] student wanted to learn something about cooking, would go over to the lodge, work on the job on a shift or go down to watch the person on motors and work on mechanics. The whites had what I think was called distributed education. They went to the banks, and other places in that category where the jobs were given more or less to the whites. "
Interview with Rev. James B. Tabb | Conducted by Robinette Fitzsimmons | 1984 | James City County Oral History Collection | Special Collections Research Center | William & Mary Libraries
Interview with Rev. James Tabb | Conducted by James Richardson and Brian Boyd | Sept. 28, 1995 | Grassroots Theatre Project | Special Collections Research Center | William & Mary Libraries
"I was the president [of the NAACP] at [the time of school integration]. I was president for 12 years and I also had another position. That put a lot of pressure on me because I put my own daughter in the Williamsburg all white school under the freedom of choice act. I enrolled her as the first Black in the school."
Rev. James B. Tabb Sr. provided the reflections below as part of the Oral History Community Nights hosted by Colonial Williamsburg during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The clips are excerpts from The Depression Years, one of several films produced from these oral history nights. The full film can be viewed here.
Film Credit: Media Collections, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Rev. Tabb discusses hard times and scarcity during the Depression.
Rev. Tabb discusses how necessities were more important than education in certain families.
Rev. Tabb discusses Colonial Williamsburg as good for the area and remembers the close-knit community in the Depression years.
Rev. Tabb and others offer final remarks and thoughts for the future.