A People's Guide to Richmond and Central Virginia - by Melissa Dawn Ooten & Jason Michael Sawyer Paperback

Book Synopsis

An expansive guide for resistance and solidarity across this storied region.

Richmond and Central Virginia are a historic epicenter of America's racialized history. This alternative guidebook foregrounds diverse communities in the region who are mobilizing to dismantle oppressive systems and fundamentally transforming the space to live and thrive. Featuring personal reflections from activists, artists, and community leaders, this book eschews colonial monuments and confederate memorials to instead highlight movements, neighborhoods, landmarks, and gathering spaces that shape social justice struggles across the history of this rapidly growing area.

The sites, stories, and events featured here reveal how community resistance and resilience remain firmly embedded in the region's landscape. A People's Guide to Richmond and Central Virginia counters the narrative that elites make history worth knowing, and sites worth visiting, by demonstrating how ordinary people come together to create more equitable futures.

From the Back Cover

"A People's Guide to Richmond and Central Virginia centers landscapes in narratives generated by public memory and movement of African Americans and other racial and oppressed groups. It provides the reader with rich perspectives that add meaning and texture to lived spaces. These narratives are as American as apple pie. I recommend this text as a major or supplemental book in the social sciences and Virginia history courses. Although cities often use the term 'unique charm' to attract the wealthy, this People's Guide exposes the uniqueness of charm in predicable patterns of whiteness. Yet, the authors' resolve through research to guide people to read more intently about these landscapes and narratives, which shape the complexity of landscapes today, is timely given the assault on African American history and culture. With this guide, one will travel well."--Colita Nichols Fairfax, editor of The African Experience in Colonial Virginia: Essays on the 1619 Arrival and the Legacy of Slavery

"This manuscript is by far the most exhaustive and comprehensive review of the complex and complicated history of Richmond and Virginia that I have seen or experienced. It is clear from the writing that Melissa Ooten and Jason Sawyer are deeply invested in truth-telling, and are knowledgeable of the issues that continue to plague this region. What I particularly appreciate is their concerted effort to include the voices of community members, activists, and people living in the midsts of these times still plagued and very much in the shadows of centuries of oppression, divisions, neglect, ignorance, and many atrocities, while remaining hopeful that change is possible and continues to take place in this region due to the tireless efforts of hundreds of people committed to making change a reality. This is a must read for all Richmonders, and for those ignorant of the facts of our American history yet willing to learn and work for change in the big ways that are necessary in this society we call our home."--Cheryl Groce-Wright, Founder and CEO of Kaleidoscope Collaborative

About the Author

Melissa Ooten directs a social justice leadership program and teaches in Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Richmond.

Jason Sawyer is Assistant Professor of Human Services at Old Dominion University. His work centers community organizing, arts education, and transformative social justice work.