Getting To Know You : Jackson Ward Walking Tour, Richmond, VA

I’ve always heard that the best way to get to know a community is to get out of your car and walk the streets. Breathe the air. Meet the people. Look at the architecture.

Since I moved to the Richmond area back in September, I’ve only driven to Jackson Ward a few times, mainly to attend sorority meetings at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Leigh Street. And at the end of each meeting, I got in my car and headed back to my comfort zone, which is about 17 miles away – Midlothian.

I knew Jackson Ward was filled with rich history, thanks to the information I found in some of the pamphlets I picked up over the last few months.  However, I never explored it.

Until today.

The Black History Museum and Cultural Center on W. Clay Street

The Valentine Richmond History Center offers a variety of walking and bus tours throughout the year to encourage residents and tourists to learn more about the area’s past, and how it contributes to what we see today.

One of those tours is the Jackson Ward Walking Tour, and I signed up to take advantage of the two-hour, 1 ½ mile journey back in time.

Twelve other people had the same idea. We met in front of the Black History Museum and Cultural Center on West Clay Street. That’s where our history lesson began, thanks to our tour guide, Marney. She revealed that the center itself is filled with lots of history.  It was originally the home of a German baker, who fought long and hard for his property when officials wanted to extend St. James Street right through it. The mansion was later transformed into a school, and then a library – the only one African Americans could use at the time.

From there, we “hit the pavement” to learn more about Jackson Ward, which is also known as the “Harlem of the South”, “Black Wall Street of America”, and the “birthplace of Black capitalism”. In the late 19^th-early 20^th centuries, it was a city within a city, which included insurance companies, banks, churches, and retail stores.

Most wealthy African Americans lived on Leigh Street, and they
built homes to flaunt their wealth. This is Maggie Walker's 25-
room mansion, which included a sunroom.

Marney covered a lot of ground. Literally. She lead us down Clay Street, to 2^nd (also known as “deuce”), back to Clay, down 3^rd, to Leigh, back to 3^rd, to Jackson, to 2^nd, Leigh, to 1^st, to Duval, Price, back to Jackson….I’ll just say we walked. A lot. In 98 degree heat provided by a relentless afternoon sun.




We walked a lot! One of my group members took
off her "church shoes", and continued the tour in her stockings.

Yet, as sweat poured down our faces and backs, we eagerly learned about the fascinating stories of William Washington Brown, John Mitchell, Maggie Walker, Oliver Hill, and Rosa Bowser. (Although not confirmed, Rosa Bowser may have been an “informant” during the Civil War. She was a slave at the White House of the Confederacy, and during the Civil War, she may have passed information on to Elizabeth Van Lew, who in return, passed information on to Union soldiers. Bowser went on to become the first African American teacher in Virginia.)



Home of Rosa Bowser, the first African American
teacher in Virginia.

We stood in awe of the Taylor Home and the statue of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. (Did you know he paid for the first traffic light at the intersection of Adams and West Leigh? I didn’t. Plus, I didn’t even know the talented tapper was from Virginia!) We wanted to know how we could get our hands on a copy of Rev. John Jasper’s “De Sun Do Move”. (People would come from all over the nation to hear this particular sermon at Sixth Mount Zion Baptist.) We wondered if Jackson Ward was named for President Andrew Jackson or Giles Beecher Jackson. (We figured it was Andrew Jackson, but who knows?)



The Taylor House was the largest African American home in
Richmond back in the early 1900s. It sits next to the Hippodrome.

We marveled over the architecture and iron work found on many of the building throughout the community. “They don’t make buildings like this anymore,” said one of my fellow group members. We could tell the buildings were constructed with pride and not just “thrown together.” That’s why many of the structures (built back in the early 1800s) are still standing today. Even the buckled, brick sidewalks are still in pretty good shape after all of these years.

I-95 cuts through the middle of Jackson Ward.

Jackson Ward is quite a gem. It’s not shining as brightly as it did during its heyday back in the 1940s (the construction of I-95 right through the middle of the community in the 1950s helped to do that), but it’s starting to get some of its old sparkle back, thanks to several revitalization efforts.

It’s a community that is definitely worth more than a passing glance. But I wouldn’t have known that had I not gotten out of my car to walk…

To find out more about the tours offered by the Valentine Richmond History Center, log on to richmondhistorytours.com, or call 804-649-0711.