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Labor of Love
Grigsby's 'Howardsville' comes from heart, research and hard work: Kevin Grigsby's 524-page “Howardsville: The Journey of an African-American Community in Loudoun County” is many things: an unblinking look, through the tales of one community, at slavery and its ravages; a narrative of love of community, of place and of family; a memoir of a way of life that is disappearing; a paean to hard work and family; a no-holds-barred admonition to the young people of today to learn from and to value their past.Howardsville, one of the first African-American communities founded by freed slaves is between Bloomfield and Upperville in Western Loudoun.
From the first chapter, “The curse of slavery,” to the last, titled “We owe a debt to those who came before us,” Grigsby chronicles his journey into his past and the lessons he has learned from it. Lessons he wants to share.
Grigsby, Loudoun County High School Class of 1991, started researching his family, the Howards who gave their name to Howardsville, in 2006. The book was conceived far earlier.
He realized while still in high school, he said, “I could tell you everything about Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, but not my own family. I didn't know the history of Howardsville or of the Douglass School.”
What started as a couple of pages for his family, tracing his lineage back to Jacob Howard, ex-slave and the first recorded landowner in 1874, became a memoir of growing up in Howardsville, with the genealogy of the four founding families down to the present day.
In one sense, Grigsby said, “Howardsville” is “a massive genealogy text, but in some ways, it's the story of the love between a grandmother and her grandson.”
Grigsby's family moved from Willisville, not far from Howardsville, to Leesburg when he was 6. But he spent every summer, nearly every weekend, most school breaks, with his grandmother, Alice Grigsby, in Howardsville. He listened to the “old folks” when they talked about their relatives and their pasts.
Howardsville may soon exist only in the memories of its descendants, Grigsby said. The young people have moved away. He and his family live in Bermuda.
In the last 90 years, Grigsby writes in the introduction, only two Howardsville tracts along Greengarden Road have been sold to someone not descended from the first four families. That could change soon, as developers hover on the outskirts of the cluster of houses and gardens.
The houses may disappear, Grigsby writes, and the families scatter, but “Homesteads may come and go ... it's inside your heart and mind where a real legacy will live on and no one can ever sell that.”
The book also charts his personal tour, through his forebears' experiences, from slavery to full citizenship: His uncle Richard poses in a 1968 photo, in Vietnam, with fellow soldiers white and black. They are all soldiers – at home, the schools were still segregated.
A photo records his father's Loudoun Valley High School class on a field trip to the U.S. Capitol in 1970 during that first year of integration in the Loudoun County schools. White and black classmates stand separate. Segregated, perhaps by choice, but separate.
A picture can stand for many words: A page later is a photo of Grigsby with his daughter Kira and his white classmate Mike Kline, who was best man at his wedding. “It's unlikely we would have had the long friendship we've enjoyed if we had gone to school in Loudoun County during segregation or the early years of integration.”
Three themes inform every page of “Howardsville” – hard work, strong families, education.
His own family tracks education, once denied: Jacob Howard was illiterate, his daughter reached second grade. Grigsby's grandmother went to school through seventh grade. His father graduated from high school. He has a college degree and a master's degree.
“The legacy of Jacob and Sophia Howard was the importance of hard work, education, and family unity. These simple values can lift many American families, both black and white, out of hard times.”
Finally, he speaks to the future, to his children and the other descendants of the former salves who settled Howardsville.
“You owe it to your ancestors never to return to slavery. ... If you choose to become a criminal and get yourself locked up ... you are becoming like a slave.
“Our forefathers paid a heavy burden so that we could be free.”
As the person featured in the article, I feel it is important that I address a few inaccuracies contained in the article and provide additional information where necessary. I would still like to thank the Loudoun Times for having a sincere interest in my book and being willing to feature it in an article.
*Loudoun County officially integrated its public schools in the fall of 1968. The article originally stated integration began in 1970. The county's school board that had for so long been opposed to even building a high school for blacks and then later bitterly opposed integration, closed Douglass High School in 1968. After years of struggle, perseverance and hard work by Loudoun’s black community, Douglass was built in 1941; thus, becoming the only black high school in the county. This noble school, which is now a historic landmark, was a beacon of hope and a source of great pride to the black community in Loudoun.
*The last chapter of the book is entitled “Other families of Howardsville”.
*I once lived on the outskirts of Willisville, but not actually in the community.
*The article stated that most of the following families: Young, Reid, Mitchell, Dorsey, and Moreland, have multiple lines of descent from several of the first four families. This was incorrect.
*Most people with roots in Howardsville are descended from at least one, but not all of the first four families as the article stated.
*From a historical perspective, Loudoun’s lack of violence and angry mobs during its school integration overshadowed the psychological trauma many of those African-American high school students endured during the early years of integration (in particular the small number of African-Americans who were granted “special permission” to attend the county’s two white high schools between 1963-1967). This topic was discussed in the book along with the tremendous progress that Loudoun’s school system has made over the years in healing from its past.
*The admonishing phrase of “you owe it to your answers never to return to slavery…….if you choose to get yourself locked up you are becoming like a slave” was not part of the final conversation in which I was speaking to my children and the present and future generations of Howardsville descendants. The deeper meaning of this phrase was explained in an earlier chapter after I provided a brief history on the following topics: the Middle Passage, slavery, the years of segregation and racial oppression, and the sacrifices made by early and later generations of Howardsville residents. The final chapter of the book concluded with this message to my children and the future generations of Howardsville descendants, “…..I hope they will discover that they have a heritage which they can learn from, be inspired by, and take great pride in. They must also remember that they have the responsibility to carry on the proud legacy and traditions of their ancestors from Howardsville”.
--Kevin Grigsby
Posted by Kevin.G
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