Editing Charlottesville, Virginia (section)

==History==
At the time of European settlement, part of the area that became Charlottesville was occupied by a [[Monacan people|Monacan]] village called ''Monasukapanough''.<ref name=swanton>{{cite book | last=Swanton| first=John R.| title=The Indian Tribes of North America| publisher=Smithsonian Institution| year=420| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtHI5pkJOGMC| isbn=0-8063-1730-2| pages=72| oclc=52230544}}</ref>

===Founding===
An Act of the Assembly of Albemarle County established Charlottesville in 1762. Thomas Walker was named its first trustee. It was situated along a trade route called [[Three Notch'd Road|Three Notched Road]] (present day [[U.S. Route 250]]), which led from [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]] to the [[Great Appalachian Valley|Great Valley]]. The town took its name from the British queen [[Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz]].

{{stack|[[File:Monticellofromgardens.jpg|thumb|View of [[Monticello]] from its gardens]]}}
During the [[American Revolutionary War]], Congress imprisoned the [[Convention Army]] in Charlottesville at the [[Albemarle Barracks]] between 1779 and 1781.<ref>
{{Cite book
 | last = Moore
 | first = John Hammond
 | title = Albemarle: Jefferson's County, 1727 - 1976
 | publisher = Albemarle County Historical Society & University Press of Virginia
 | year = 1976
 | location = Charlottesville
 | isbn = 0-8139-0645-8
}}
</ref>
The Governor and legislators had to abandon the capitol temporarily and on June 4, 1781, [[Jack Jouett]] warned the Virginia Legislature meeting at [[Monticello]] of a planned raid by Colonel [[Banastre Tarleton]], allowing a narrow escape.

===Civil War and Reconstruction===
Unlike much of Virginia, Charlottesville was spared the brunt of the [[American Civil War]]. The only battle to take place in Charlottesville was the [[Battle of Rio Hill|skirmish at Rio Hill]], an encounter in which [[George Armstrong Custer]] briefly engaged local [[Confederate Home Guard]]s before retreating. A year later, the Charlottesville Factory, founded c. 1820–30, was accidentally burnt during General [[Philip Sheridan]]'s 1865 raid through the Shenandoah Valley. However, the mayor had surrendered the city to Generals Custer and Sheridan to keep the town from being burned. The factory had been taken over by the Confederacy and used to manufacture woolen clothing for the soldiers. It caught fire when some coals taken by Union troops to burn the nearby railroad bridge dropped on the floor. The factory was rebuilt immediately and was known as the Woolen Mills until its liquidation in 1962.<ref name="MonicaCalif.)1998">{{cite book
|author1=Museum of African American Art (Santa Monica, Calif.)
|author2=Hampton University (Va.) Museum
|title=The International Review of African American Art
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4htVAAAAMAAJ
|year=1998
|publisher=Museum of African American Art
|page=23
|access-date=October 22, 2010
}}</ref>

=== Segregation and Jim Crow laws ===
After Reconstruction ended, Charlottesville's African American population suffered under [[Jim Crow laws]] that segregated public places and limited opportunity. Schools were racially segregated and African Americans were not served in many local businesses.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Ninety-Two Acre Tract on Rugby Avenue Will Be Converted into Playground for whites. Second Tract, on Rose Hill, For Colored|date=21 January 1926|work=Daily Progress}}</ref> Public parks were planned separately for the white and African American populations: four for whites, and one for African Americans built on the site of a former dump.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Can exposing Americans to Charlottesville's savage, racist history save it?
|first=Jocelyn Nicole
|last=Johnson
|date=December 13, 2018
|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]
|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/13/us-racism-history-save-charlottesville}}</ref> The [[Ku Klux Klan]] had chapters in the Charlottesville area beginning at least in the early twentieth century,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/black-community-charlottesville-response/537285/|title=Black Charlottesville Has Seen This All Before|last=II|first=Vann R. Newkirk|date=2017-08-18|work=The Atlantic|access-date=2018-08-20|language=en-US}}</ref> and events such as [[lynching in the United States|lynchings]] and [[cross burning]]s occurred in the Charlottesville area. In 1898, Charlottesville resident [[Lynching of John Henry James|John Henry James]] was lynched in the nearby town of Ivy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/James_The_Lynching_of_John_Henry_1898|title=James, The Lynching of John Henry (1898)|website=Encyclopedia Virginia|language=en|access-date=2018-08-20}}</ref> In August 1950, three white men were observed burning a cross on Cherry Avenue, a street in a mostly [[African-American neighborhood]] in Charlottesville.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|title=Charlottesville Citizens Shocked By Burning Cross in Negro Area Tuesday Night|date=August 18, 1950|work=Charlottesville Tribune}}</ref> It was speculated that the cross burning might be a reaction to "a white man [who] had been known to socialize with one of the young Negro women in that vicinity."<ref name=":0" /> In 1956, crosses were burned outside a progressive church.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.uucharlottesville.org/the-talk-of-tjmc-on-torches-and-crosses-and-the-call-of-our-faith/|title=The Talk of TJMC – On Torches, and Crosses, and the Call of Our Faith – Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church|website=Unitarian Universalist|date=August 2, 2017|language=en-US|access-date=2018-08-20}}</ref>

In 1947, Charlottesville organized a local [[NAACP]] branch.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Local NAACP Seats Officers Tonight|date=January 21, 1971|work=Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://www.albemarle-cvillenaacp.org/about-us/|title=About Us|website=Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP|access-date=November 30, 2018|archive-date=December 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181201005157/http://www.albemarle-cvillenaacp.org/about-us/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2001, the Charlottesville and Albemarle Branches of the NAACP merged to form the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP Branch.<ref name=":3" />[[File:Lewis & Clark.jpeg|thumb|upright|Statue of [[Meriwether Lewis|Lewis]] and [[William Clark|Clark]] (now removed by the city)]]In the fall of 1958, Charlottesville closed its segregated white schools as part of Virginia's strategy of [[massive resistance]] to federal court orders requiring integration as part of the implementation of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] decision ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]''. The closures were required by a new series of state laws collectively known as the [[Stanley Plan]], which prohibited and denied funding to integrated public schools. Segregated schools remained open, however.<ref name="racebeat">{{cite book | author = [[Gene Roberts (journalist)|Roberts, Gene]] and [[Hank Klibanoff]] | title = [[The Race Beat|The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation]] | publisher = [[Alfred A. Knopf]] | place = New York | year = 2006 | isbn = 0-679-40381-7}}</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2020}} The first African-American member of the Charlottesville School Board was Raymond Bell in 1963.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9qkzDwAAQBAJ&q=%22albemarle+training+school%22&pg=PA15|title=Urban Renewal and the End of Black Culture in Charlottesville, Virginia: An Oral History of Vinegar Hill|last1=Saunders|first1=James Robert|last2=Shackelford|first2=Renae Nadine|publisher=McFarland|year=1998|isbn=9781476632384|language=en}}</ref>

In 1963, later than many Southern cities, civil rights activists in Charlottesville began protesting segregated restaurants with [[sit-in]]s, such as one that occurred at Buddy's Restaurant near the University of Virginia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/civil-rights-leaders-reflect-on-charlottesville-segregation-50-years-after-king-speech/article_6d420fa4-0d00-11e3-b22c-0019bb30f31a.html|title=Civil rights leaders reflect on Charlottesville segregation 50 years after King speech|website=www.dailyprogress.com|date=August 24, 2013 |access-date=2021-02-15}}</ref>

=== Destruction of Vinegar Hill ===
In 1965, the city government razed the downtown African American neighborhood [[Vinegar Hill (Charlottesville, Virginia)|Vinegar Hill]] as an [[urban renewal]] project, after the city council passed a law stating that "unsanitary and unsafe" properties could be taken over by a [[housing authority]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timeline.com/charlottesville-vinegar-hill-demolished-ba27b6ea69e1|title=In 1965, the city of Charlottesville demolished a black neighborhood slum|date=2017-08-15|work=Timeline|access-date=2018-08-19}}</ref> Vinegar Hill had served the needs of the black community while the city remained [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregated]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cvilletomorrow.org/news/article/30442-vinegar-hill-park-process-to-start-this-summer/|title=Vinegar Hill Park process to start this summer ⋅ Charlottesville Tomorrow|website=Charlottesville Tomorrow|access-date=2018-09-01}}</ref> One hundred thirty homes, five Black-owned businesses, and a church were destroyed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.charlottesville.org/departments-and-services/departments-h-z/neighborhood-development-services/historic-preservation-and-design-review/historic-resources-committee/local-markers/vinegar-hill|title=Vinegar Hill {{!}} City of Charlottesville|website=www.charlottesville.org|language=en|access-date=2024-04-11}}</ref> Many displaced community members moved into the Westhaven public housing project. The land was not redeveloped until the late 1970s.

Despite razing this small area comprising about 20 acres abutting West Main Street in the city's commercial downtown area, Charlottesville maintained its vibrant black community spanning the much larger and still extant Ridge Street and Fifeville neighborhoods to the south, and the Tenth & Page and Rose Hill neighborhoods to the north. Neighborhood civic associations, social clubs, and church groups sponsored activities for its residents.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Charlottesville Society|date=15 April 1971|work=Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune}}</ref> The Blue Mints Social Club met at the home of Mrs. Reva Shelton on December 1, 1974. At this meeting, the group planned their annual "Baskets of Cheer", and hosted a Cabaret Dance on New Year's Eve at Carver Recreation Center, with the Randolph Brothers performing.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Mrs. Reva Shelton Entertains the Blue Mints|date=December 12, 1974|work=Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune}}</ref> In 1974, other social clubs listed are the Bethune Art and Literary Club, The Lucky Twenty Club, and the Les Amies Club.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Mrs. Fortune Hostess to the Bethune Art and Literary Club|date=December 12, 1974|work=Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Mrs. Witcher Entertains the Lucky 20 Club|date=December 12, 1974|work=Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Mrs. Garrett Hostess To Les Amies Club|date=December 12, 1974|work=Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune}}</ref>[[File:Robert Edward Lee sculpture covered in tarp.jpg|thumb|upright|Lee sculpture covered in black tarp following the [[Unite the Right rally]] of 2017 (now removed by the city)]]
[[Image:Court Square.jpg|thumb|right|Court Square and Confederate statue (now removed by the city)]]

===Conflict over Confederate symbols===
{{see also|Unite the Right rally|Charlottesville car attack}}
Starting in the 2010s Charlottesville received national attention because of local conflict between those who did and those who did not want Confederate symbols removed. ''[[The Washington Post]]'' has reported that "Nowhere has this clash been more fraught than in Charlottesville, where parks have been renamed, then renamed again, streets have been re-christened, and stickers bearing white supremacist slogans go up as quickly as activists can remove them."<ref>{{cite news
|title=Charlottesville won't celebrate Thomas Jefferson's birthday. It will mark slavery's end instead
|first=Michael E.
|last=Miller 
|date=March 1, 2020
|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]
|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/03/01/charlottesville-thomas-jefferson-birthday-slavery/}}</ref>

City attempts to remove statues of [[Robert E. Lee]] and [[Stonewall Jackson]] from downtown parks have been the subject of extensive, unresolved litigation. In August 2017, [[White supremacy|white supremacist]] groups opposed to their removal organized the "[[Unite the Right rally]]" to protest against the removal of the [[Robert E. Lee Monument (Charlottesville, Virginia)|''Robert E. Lee'']] statue from then Lee Park, subsequently renamed [[Emancipation Park (Charlottesville, Virginia)|Emancipation Park]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/08/15/organizers-and-leaders-charlottesvilles-deadly-rally-raised-money-paypal/|title=Organizers and leaders of Charlottesville's Deadly Rally Raised Money With PayPal|last=Southern Poverty Law Center|publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center|first=Hate Watch Staff|access-date=2017-08-17}}</ref> After the rally, a [[Charlottesville car attack|white nationalist drove a car into protesters]], resulting in the death of counter-protester [[Charlottesville car attack#Victims|Heather Heyer]] and causing injuries to 19 other counter-protesters.<ref name="HeimWaPo">Joe Heim, Ellie Silverman, T. Rees Shapiro & Emma Brown (August 12, 2017), [https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fights-in-advance-of-saturday-protest-in-charlottesville/2017/08/12/155fb636-7f13-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html "One dead as car strikes crowds amid protests of white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville; two police die in helicopter crash"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170812103231/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fights-in-advance-of-saturday-protest-in-charlottesville/2017/08/12/155fb636-7f13-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html|date=August 12, 2017}}, ''The Washington Post''.</ref> The incident became national news and Charlottesville became a symbol of political turbulence nationwide.<ref>{{cite news |title=What Charlottesville Changed |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/12/charlottesville-anniversary-supremacists-protests-dc-virginia-219353/ |access-date=24 February 2024 |agency=[[Politico Magazine]] |date=12 August 2018}}</ref> The city succeeded in the removal of the Lee and Jackson statues on July 10, 2021,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Paviour |first1=Ben |title=Charlottesville Removes Robert E. Lee Statue That Sparked A Deadly Rally |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/07/10/1014926659/charlottesville-removes-robert-e-lee-statue-that-sparked-a-deadly-rally |access-date=24 February 2024 |agency=[[NPR]] |date=10 July 2021}}</ref> in addition to a statue of [[Meriwether Lewis]], [[William Clark]] and [[Sacagawea]] of the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Vera |first1=Amir |title=Charlottesville removes Lewis and Clark statue featuring Sacagawea along with Confederate statues |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/12/us/sacagawea-lewis-and-clark-statue-charlottesville-virginia/index.html |access-date=24 February 2024 |agency=[[CNN]] |date=13 July 2021}}</ref>

===Religious history===
Christ Episcopal Church was Charlottesville's first church. It was begun in 1820 by builders on loan from Thomas Jefferson, and the congregation's current home was completed in the early 1900s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.c-ville.com/the-rite-stuff-what-the-episcopal-churchs-position-on-gay-marriage-can-teach-us-about-the-middle-ground|publisher=[[c-ville.com]] |date=July 30, 2013|title=The rite stuff: What the Episcopal Church's position on gay marriage can teach us about the middle ground|access-date=October 19, 2019}}</ref>

The first black church in Charlottesville, the First Baptist Church of Charlottesville, was established in 1864. Previously, it was illegal for African Americans to have their own churches, although they were allowed to worship in designated areas in white churches, if the white church members allowed it. Its first black pastor (previously, it was required by law that all churches have white pastors), was [[William D. Gibbons]]. The date he became pastor is not known with certainty, but was about 1868. A current predominantly African-American church can trace its lineage to that first church.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hallowedground.org/African-American-Heritage/First-Baptist-Church-Charlottesville|title=First Baptist Church (Charlottesville)|publisher=The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership|access-date=May 7, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518073946/http://www.hallowedground.org/African-American-Heritage/First-Baptist-Church-Charlottesville|archive-date=May 18, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Congregation Beth Israel (Charlottesville, Virginia)|Congregation Beth Israel's]] 1882 building is the [[Oldest synagogues in the United States|oldest synagogue building]] still standing in Virginia.<ref>Rediscovering Jewish Infrastructure: Update on United States Nineteenth Century Synagogues, Mark W. Gordon, American Jewish History 84.1 (1996) 11–27 [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_jewish_history/v084/84.1gordon.html]. [http://www.ajhs.org/rediscovering-jewish-infrastructure 2019 article update].</ref>

In 1974, some of the Baptist churches in Charlottesville included the Union Run Baptist Church, the South Garden Baptist Church, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Charlottesville Society|last=Reaves|first=Donna|date=September 5, 1974|work=Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune}}</ref>

The first [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] church in Charlottesville was the Church of the Paraclete, built in 1880 and erected as a parish in 1896. In 1906 the church building was renovated and the parish was renamed to Holy Comforter. A second parish was erected for the growing Catholic population in 1976 called the Church of the Incarnation.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of Holy Comforter Church {{!}} Holy Comforter Catholic Church|url=https://holycomforterparish.org/history-of-holy-comforter-church/|access-date=2020-07-31|website=holycomforterparish.org|date=March 28, 2013}}</ref> In 1967 a [[Dominican Order|Dominican]]-run parish for Catholic students at the University of Virginia was dedicated (replacing a [[Newman Centers|Newman Center]] begun in 1943), and named St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About Us|url=https://stauva.org/about-us|access-date=2020-07-31|website=St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish|language=en}}</ref> The first Mass of record in Charlottesville was celebrated in the parlor of F. M. Paoli's residence, presumably on Random Row, now West Main Street. Services were held for about 12 years after that in the Town Hall. The presiders were priests who came from St. Francis Assisi Church in Staunton and then traveled on to other missions in the area.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://holycomforterparish.org/history-of-holy-comforter-church// | title=History of Holy Comforter Church &#124; Holy Comforter Catholic Church | date=March 28, 2013 }}</ref>