Challenging the Lost Cause in Harpers Ferry

Arguably no place in the Shenandoah Valley is more significant to the Civil War's emancipationist legacy than Harpers Ferry. Not only was Harpers Ferry the scene of some of the largest emancipation celebrations in the Shenandoah Valley, it became an important gathering place for the Niagara Movement (later the NAACP), and a battleground for contested memory.

Documents in this section focus on the transformation of John Brown's Fort into a monument to freedom and justice, the dedication of the monument to Heyward Shepherd in 1931 and African American responses to it, and the efforts of the NAACP to memorialize John Brown on the campus of Storer College.