This program highlights the Black landowners who, after the Civil War, built their homes and a community in Fairfax County. Ms Dobbin’s book, “The Lost Black Communities of Merrifield, The Pines and Williamstown,” documents the history of these neighborhoods and the people who built the institutions, charitable organizations and churches that formed the backbone of these communities and their eventual loss to the consequences of gentrification.
You will never drive down Rt 50 and Gallows Rd again without looking for the echoes of these families.