Editing Petersburg, Virginia (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of Petersburg, Virginia}}
[[File:Petersburg, Va., from Duns Hill (NYPL Hades-256520-EM14834) (cropped).jpg|thumb|''Petersburg, Va., from Duns Hill'', {{Circa|1880}}]]
[[File:Headquarters of the 5th Corps, Army of the Potomac, at the home of Col. Avery near Petersburg, Virginia) - Brady, Washington LCCN2017660615 crop.jpg|thumb|The [[American Civil War|Civil War]] headquarters staff of the [[Army of the Potomac]]'s 5th Corps at the home of Col. [[Isaac E. Avery]] near Petersburg, photographed by [[Matthew Brady]] in June 1864; the following month, on July 3, Avery was killed in the [[Battle of Gettysburg]].]]
<!--in order to keep focused, the following paragraphs have been outlined; more detailed topics should be covered in the History of Petersburg, Virginia article-->

=== Indigenous peoples ===
Archaeological excavations at [[Pocahontas Island, Virginia|Pocahontas Island]] found evidence of a prehistoric [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] settlement dated to 6,500 [[Common Era|BCE]], the early third of the [[Archaic period in the Americas|Archaic Period]] (8,000 to 1,000 BCE). Succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples lived in the area for thousands of years before European exploration and colonization.

When the English arrived in Virginia in 1607, the region was occupied by the ''[[Appamatuck]]'', a significant tribe of the [[Powhatan Confederacy]]. They were governed by a ''[[weroance]]'', King ''Coquonosum'', and by his sister, Queen ''Oppussoquionuske''. This [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]]-speaking people later had a town at Rohoic Creek (formerly known as ''Rohowick'' or Indian Towne Run). Present-day Petersburg developed to the east.

=== Founding ===
Petersburg was founded at a strategic point at the [[fall line]] of the [[Appomattox River]] and settled by [[English people|English]] colonists. By 1635 they had patented land along the south bank of the Appomattox River as far west as present-day Sycamore Street, and about {{convert|1|mi|km}} inland. In 1646, the [[Virginia Colony]] established [[Fort Henry (Virginia)|Fort Henry]] a short distance from the Appamatuck town, near the falls. It provided waterpower for mills and later industrialization. Col. [[Abraham Wood]] sent several famous expeditions out from here in the following years to explore points to the west, as far as the [[Appalachian Mountains]].

Around 1675, Wood's son-in-law, Peter Jones, who then commanded the fort and traded with the Indians, opened a [[trading post]] nearby, known as '''Peter's Point'''. The [[Beverley Kennon|Kennon]] and [[Robert Bolling|Bolling]] families, prominent [[tobacco]] planters and traders, also lived in the area and engaged in local politics. In 1733, Col. [[William Byrd II]] (who founded [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]] at the same time) conceived plans for a city at Peter's Point, to be renamed '''Petersburgh'''. The [[Virginia General Assembly]] formally incorporated both Petersburg and adjacent Blandford on December 17, 1748. Wittontown, north of the river, was settled in 1749, and became incorporated as Pocahontas in 1752. Petersburg was enlarged slightly in 1762, adding {{convert|28|acre|m2}} to "Old Town".<ref>James H. Bailey, ''Old Petersburg'', p. 16.</ref>

=== Revolutionary War Period ===
During the [[American Revolutionary War]] (1775–1783), the final British drive to regain control of the colony led to the [[Battle of Blanford]] in April 1781, which started just east of Petersburg. As Virginia militia retreated north across the Appomattox River, they took up the planks of the wooden Pocahontas bridge to delay the enemy. Although the British captured Blanford and Petersburg, they did not regain the strategic advantage. Lord Cornwallis' forces coming up from the Carolinas into Virginia occupied [[Yorktown, Virginia|Yorktown]] on the [[York River (Virginia)|York River]], waiting to meet a [[Royal Navy]] fleet. But a larger combined American-French army soon surrounded and besieged them. Cornwallis and his troops found themselves trapped and isolated when the French Navy's West Indies fleet under Admiral [[François Joseph Paul de Grasse|de Grasse]] sailed north and won the offshore naval [[Battle of the Capes]] at the mouth of the [[Chesapeake Bay]], forcing the British resupply and evacuation fleet to withdraw. In October 1781, Lord Cornwallis surrendered to the superior allied [[Continental Army]]'s General [[George Washington]] and [[French Army|French]] General [[comte de Rochambeau]]. After two further years of infrequent conflict and many treaty parleys, the Revolutionary War ended with Britain formally recognizing the new United States.

After the war, in 1784 Petersburg annexed the adjacent towns of Blandford (also called Blanford), Pocahontas and the outlying town of Ravenscroft, which became neighborhoods of the larger city. An area known as Gillfield was annexed in 1798.<ref>James H. Bailey, ''Old Petersburg'', p. 17.</ref> Residents' devotion to the cause of America two decades later during the [[War of 1812]] (1812–1815) led to the formation of the militia unit of the Petersburg Volunteers—who distinguished themselves in action at the [[Siege of Fort Meigs]] on the [[Great Lakes]] frontier on May 5, 1813. Fourth President [[James Madison]] called Petersburg "Cockade of the Union" (which later was applied to the town as a nickname "Cockade City"), in honor of the cockades which Volunteers wore on their caps.<ref>James H. Bailey, ''Old Petersburg'', pp. 18–19.</ref>

=== Petersburg's Free Black Community ===

Petersburg Blacks established the [[First Baptist Church (Petersburg, Virginia)|First Baptist]] (1774) and [[Gillfield Baptist Church, Virginia|Gillfield Baptist Church]] (1797), the first and second oldest black congregations in the city and two of the oldest in the nation.<ref>{{cite web | title=Gillfield Baptist Church Minutes | website=VCU Libraries | date=2008-07-28 | url=http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/vbha/gillmin.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081019021534/http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/vbha/gillmin.html | archive-date=2008-10-19 | url-status=unfit | access-date=2019-08-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=First Baptist Church, Petersburg | website=AfroVirginia | url=http://afrovirginia.org/items/show/141 | access-date=2019-08-28}}</ref> These black churches were the first Baptist churches established in Petersburg.<ref name=Raboteau /> The Gillfield Baptist Church obtained title to its land in 1818 and in 1859 completed a $7000 brick structure; the Petersburg African Baptist Church also owned its own sanctuary and the community also organized burial and other benevolent societies.<ref>Greene p. 9</ref>

Many free blacks in Virginia migrated to the growing urban community, despite increasing legislative restrictions. Until 1860 Petersburg was a majority black American city, although the enslaved population had few legal rights. Between 1850 and 1860, Petersburg's free black community increased 24%, although industrial growth fueled an even greater increase in the white population. Of the 18,366 people counted in Petersburg by federal census takers in 1860, 9,342 were white, 5,680 were slaves, and 3,244 free blacks. Thus in 1860, nearly 26% of all free persons were black, the highest proportion in any Southern city.<ref>Greene p. 8</ref> Free Black men worked as tobacco twisters, in iron foundries, and as draymen, boatmen and cabdrivers, or in the skilled trades of mason, wheelwright, coopers and blacksmiths. Free Black women worked in tobacco factories as stemmers, or as washerwomen or seamstresses or laborers. Plantation owners also brought slaves for hire into the city. As in many other upper South cities, many white households had slaves, but more than 40% were enslaving just one servant.<ref>Greene pp. 8-9</ref>

[[Pocahontas Island, Virginia|Pocahontas Island]] (actually usually a peninsula on the north shore of the [[Appomattox River]]) became the area's free black residential area. With access to waterways and a population sympathetic to refugee slaves, this neighborhood was an important site on the [[Underground Railroad]].{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

=== Antebellum Period ===
During the [[Antebellum period]] Petersburg became the slave states' eleventh largest city, and 49th among all American cities in industrial development.<ref>Greene pp. 4, 6</ref> Commission merchants (39 firms by 1860) bought agricultural products from nearby Dinwiddie County as well as points to the north, south and west and sold supplies. Petersburg's industrialists processed [[cotton]], [[tobacco]] and metal, then shipped the resulting products out of the region. Richmond and Petersburg became the two largest tobacco towns in the world, with Richmond selling 61% of the state's tobacco in 1861, and Petersburg 23%. Petersburg's cotton industry relied on waterpower since its inception in the 1830s, and by 1860 towns had developed around the Lynch and Callender mills at Ettick and Matoaca and Battersea across the Appomattox river, and the Merchant's Manufacturing Company had another mill at Campbell Bridge near Ettrick. Together those cotton mills constituted approximately a third of that industry in the state. The town also had three water-powered flour mills by 1860, and five iron foundries.<ref>Greene pp. 6-7</ref>

The city became an important industrial center in a mostly agricultural state with few major cities. Starting in 1813, the city paved its streets, which helped attract business. In 1816 the Upper Appomattox Canal Company completed the [[Upper Appomattox Canal Navigation System]] to bypass the Appomattox Falls, which facilitated traffic up and down river to [[Farmville, Virginia|Farmville]] as well as powered cotton and flour mills. Petersburg responded to the silting-up of its Appomattox River port by building the 8 mile long [[City Point Railroad]], which linked the city to [[City Point, Virginia|City Point]] on the James River, reachable by larger [[Chesapeake Bay]] and [[Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk]]-bound ships. During the same decade Petersburg became a railroad center. The Virginia and North Carolina legislatures authorized the 65-mile long [[Petersburg Railroad|Petersburg and Weldon Railroad]], in 1830 (three years after the first American railway, the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad|B.& O.]]) and its "Southern depot" began handling (mostly freight) traffic to [[Weldon, North Carolina]] in 1833. The Virginia legislature authorized the [[Richmond and Petersburg Railroad]] in 1835, and three years later it opened between Petersburg's Pocahontas neighborhood and Richmond's Manchester neighborhood, proving a more convenient and cheaper link than the Manchester Turnpike. The legislature in 1846 chartered [[Southside Railroad (Virginia)|Southside Railroad]] to Farmville and [[Lynchburg, Virginia|Lynchburg]] to the west. It would run 124 miles westward and supersede the technologically outdated Upper Appomattox Canal and acquire the Appomattox Railroad in 1854. Petersburg business interests for years managed to block a charter for the last major line, the [[Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad]], which was completed in 1858. It connected Petersburg to the Atlantic Ocean port of Norfolk and would foster more growth in that city than Petersburg itself.<ref>Greene pp. 4-5</ref>

In 1851 the city introduced gaslights and by 1857 installed a new municipal water system. All these civic improvements helped attract and hold a substantial business community, based on manufacture of tobacco products, cotton and flour and banking.

=== American Civil War ===
[[File:Essayons Dramatic Club - Siege of Petersburg.jpg|thumb|U.S. Engineer Battalion, during the Siege of Petersburg, August 1864]]
At the time of the [[American Civil War]], Petersburg was the second-largest city in Virginia after the capital, Richmond, and the seventh-largest city in the Confederacy. Petersburg's population had the highest percentage of free black Americans of any city in the Confederacy and the largest number of free blacks in the Mid-Atlantic region.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web | title=Proud, free and black: Petersburg – visiting the Virginia location of the largest number of 19th century free slaves | website=American Visions| date=1994 | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1546/is_n3_v9/ai_15495032 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305233514/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1546/is_n3_v9/ai_15495032 | archive-date=2009-03-05 | url-status=unfit | access-date=2019-08-28}}</ref>

When the Civil War began in 1861, Petersburg was strategic in supporting the Confederate effort. The city provided several infantry companies and artillery units to the Confederate Army, along with three troops of cavalry. In April 1861 more than 300 free black Americans of Petersburg volunteered to work on the fortifications of [[Norfolk, Virginia]] under their own leader. Slaveholders also contributed the labor of numerous black slaves.<ref>{{cite web | title=Petersburg Black Confederates | website=Petersburg Battlefield | url=http://www.petersburgexpress.com/Petersburg_Black-CSA.html | access-date=2019-08-28}}</ref>

==== Siege of Petersburg ====
In 1864, Petersburg became a target during the [[Overland Campaign]] of Union General [[Ulysses S. Grant]]. Its numerous railroads made the city a lifeline for Richmond, the Confederate capital. After his defeat at the [[Battle of Cold Harbor]], Grant remained east of Richmond, crossed the James River and moved south to Petersburg. Grant intended to cut the rail lines into Petersburg, stopping Richmond's supplies. On June 9, troops led by [[William Farrar Smith|William F. "Baldy" Smith]] of the [[XVIII Corps (ACW)|18th Corps]], attacked the [[First Battle of Petersburg#Background|Dimmock Line]], a series of defensive [[Earthworks (engineering)|breastworks]] constructed to protect Petersburg.

General [[Robert E. Lee]] arrived with his [[Army of Northern Virginia]], and the 292-day [[Siege of Petersburg]] began. Due to botched Union leadership and arrival of Confederate General [[William Mahone]], the Union forces suffered a disastrous defeat at the [[Battle of the Crater]], suffering over 4,000 casualties. In early April 1865, Union troops finally managed to push their left flank to the railroad to [[Weldon, North Carolina]] and the [[Southside Railroad (Virginia)|Southside Railroad]]. With the loss of Petersburg's crucial railroad lines, the Confederate forces had to retreat, ending the siege in a victory for the Union Army. The fall of Petersburg meant that Richmond could no longer be defended. Lee attempted to lead his men south to join up with Confederate forces in North Carolina. Hopelessly outnumbered, he was surrounded and forced to surrender at [[Appomattox Court House National Historical Park|Appomattox Court House]], Virginia, on April 9, 1865.

=== Reconstruction era ===
[[File:SouthSideRailroadDepotPetersburgVA.JPG|thumb|right|South Side Railroad Depot on Rock Street which served as the office of [[William Mahone]] when his Readjustor Party dominated Virginia politics.]]
In the years after the Civil War, many freedmen migrated to Petersburg, founding numerous churches, businesses and institutions. The [[Freedmen's Bureau]] established new facilities for [[freedmen]], including a mental health hospital in December 1869, at Howard's Grove Hospital, a former Confederate unit. The U.S. Federal Government and the railroad companies repaired the damaged railroads to the city.<ref>{{cite book|title=Congressional Serial Set|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nv4qAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA75|year=1900|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=75–84}}</ref><ref name="Burke2013">{{cite book|author=James C. Burke|title=The Wilmington & Weldon Railroad in the Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udLE_7rd_cwC&pg=PA162|date=29 October 2013|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-9306-7|page=162}}</ref> [[Saint John's Episcopal Church (Petersburg, Virginia)|Saint John's Episcopal Church]] was founded in Petersburg in 1868.

In 1870 the General Assembly incorporated the Central Lunatic Asylum as an organized state institution, as part of an effort by the bi-racial [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]]-era legislature to increase public institutions for general welfare. The legislature also founded the state's first system of free public education.

=== Readjuster era ===
During the 1880s, a coalition of black Republicans and white [[Populist Party (United States)|Populists]] held power for several years in the state legislature. This resulted in two major public institutions in Petersburg, as the legislature invested for education and welfare. In 1882, the legislature founded [[Virginia State University]] in nearby Ettrick as Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. It was one of the first public (fully state-supported) four-year [[historically black colleges and universities]] (HBCU) in the [[Mid-Atlantic States|Mid-Atlantic]]. This was part of a drive to improve public education that started with the Reconstruction legislature.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://archive.boston.com/travel/articles/2005/03/09/civil_war_history_lesson/?page=2|title=Civil War history lesson Petersburg, Va., embraces and expands its past|last=Shorr|first=Kathy|date=2005-03-09|work=The Boston Globe|access-date=2019-08-28}}</ref>  In 1888, its first president, [[John Mercer Langston]], was elected to the [[US Congress]] on the Republican ticket, the first [[African American|black American]] to be elected to Congress from Virginia.

In 1882, the state legislature also authorized moving the mental asylum facility to the Mayfield Farm and developing a new campus there. This is the site of the present-day [[Central State Hospital (Virginia)|Central State Hospital]], which provides a variety of mental health services.

In 1894 a fireworks factory exploded killing eleven people.<ref>{{cite news |title=landford, VA Fireworks Factory Explosion |url=http://www.gendisasters.com/virginia/14543/blandford-va-fireworks-factory-explosion-apr-1894 |access-date=23 September 2020 |publisher=Atlanta Constitution |date=7 April 1894 |archive-date=October 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024090442/https://gendisasters.com/virginia/14543/blandford-va-fireworks-factory-explosion-apr-1894 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== 20th century to present ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2024}}
The limitations of Petersburg's small geographic area and proximity to Richmond are structural problems that have hampered it in adapting to major economic changes in the 20th century. Other forces in the mid-20th century, such as industrial and railroad restructuring, reduced the number of jobs in the city. In addition, suburban development attracted people to newer housing outside the city.

World wars led to major federal institutions being constructed near Petersburg, which created local jobs. Soon after [[World War I]] started, the [[US Army]] established Camp Lee just outside of Petersburg in [[Prince George County, Virginia|Prince George County]] for training draftees. The facility was used again during [[World War II]]. In 1950 the camp was designated as [[Fort Lee, Virginia|Fort Lee]], and additional buildings were constructed to house the U.S. Army [[Quartermaster Corps]] Center and School.

During WWII [[Fort Barfoot|Camp Pickett]] was established west of Petersburg near the small rural town of [[Blackstone, Virginia|Blackstone]], and the [[Defense Supply Center, Richmond]] opened in neighboring [[Chesterfield County, Virginia|Chesterfield]]. In the postwar period, some of these installations have been reduced in size. In the 1950s, Petersburg became the southern terminus of the [[Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike]], predating the [[U.S. Interstate Highway System]].

Since that time, Petersburg has struggled in competition with nearby Richmond, as the capital has grown to dominate the region in a changing economy as industries restructured.

==== Jim Crow ====
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Virginia's [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]–dominated legislature approved constitutional changes that effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised]] most blacks and many poor whites. Those disfranchised suffered major losses in the ability to exercise their rights as citizens. The legislature also instituted [[Jim Crow]] laws, including imposing [[racial segregation]].

With many black Americans having served the nation and cause of freedom in WWII, in the postwar years they pressed for social justice, an end to segregation, and restoration of voting power.

In 1949 Petersburg businessman and politician, [[Remmie Arnold]], the president and owner of the Arnold Pen Company, at the time one of the largest manufacturers of [[fountain pens]], launched a campaign for Governor of Virginia. As a Petersburg city councilman, Arnold had pushed through a budgetary increase earmarked for equality and fair access for public housing and recreational facilities for everyone, including people of color, and increased budgetary considerations for the black schools in Petersburg. Unusually for a Democratic politician in the Jim Crow South, Arnold promised to "deal with all Virginians fairly", whatever their ethnicity. He was endorsed by [[Arthur Wergs Mitchell]], the first black American to be elected to the United States Congress as a Democrat. Arnold ultimately lost the Democratic primary to [[John S. Battle]], who won the gubernatorial election.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nordin|first=Dennis Sven|title=The New Deal's Black Congressman: A Life of Arthur Wergs Mitchell|url=https://archive.org/details/newdealsblackcon00nord|url-access=registration|year=1997|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-1102-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/newdealsblackcon00nord/page/286 286]}}</ref>

Even after the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] of many blacks to northern jobs and cities, Petersburg was 40 percent black in 1960. Under state segregation and Jim Crow laws, those citizens were barred from free use of public spaces and facilities.<ref name=Arsenault>{{cite book|last=Arsenault|first=Raymond|author-link=Raymond Arsenault|title=Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice|url=https://archive.org/details/freedomriders1960000arse|url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-975581-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/freedomriders1960000arse/page/115 115]}}</ref>

=== Civil Rights Movement ===
Major black churches, such as First Baptist and Gillfield Baptist, formed the moral center of the [[Civil Rights Movement]] in Petersburg, which gained strength in mid-century and was a center of action. Dr. [[Wyatt Tee Walker]], the pastor of Gillfield Baptist Church, had become friends with Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] in the early 1950s when they were both in divinity school in New York state. In 1957 they co-founded the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC), an important force for leadership of the movement in the South. Walker also founded the Petersburg Improvement Association (PIA), modeled on the [[Montgomery Improvement Association]] in [[Alabama]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Wyatt Tee Walker papers | website=archives.nypl.org | date=1987 | url=http://archives.nypl.org/scm/20626 | access-date=2019-08-28}}</ref>  According to Walker and other close associates of King, Petersburg had played an important role, a kind of blueprint for the national civil rights movement.

Beginning in the 1950s black Americans in Petersburg struggled to desegregate public schools and facilities. In 1958 the City Council closed Wilcox Lake, a popular [[swimming hole]] in Petersburg to prevent the lake's public recreational area from being racially integrated. It never re-opened to swimming.<ref>{{cite web | access-date=2019-08-28 | url=https://www.progress-index.com/article/20130807/NEWS/308079915 | title=Petersburg moving to reopen lake closed by segregation | date=2013-08-07 | language=en | website=The Progress-Index}}</ref> Through sit-ins in the bus terminal in 1960, the PIA gained agreement by the president of the Bus Terminal Restaurants to desegregate lunch counters in Petersburg and several other cities.<ref name=Arsenault />

Virginia officials strongly opposed school integration following the 1954 US Supreme Court ruling in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' that segregated public schools were unconstitutional. They initiated the program of [[Massive Resistance]]. For instance, rather than allow schools to be integrated, then [[Governor of Virginia]], [[J. Lindsay Almond]] ordered the schools in several localities including [[Warren County, Virginia|Warren County]], [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]] and [[Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk]], to be closed. The school board of [[Prince Edward County, Virginia|Prince Edward County]] closed the public schools for five years, starting in 1959. In Petersburg, the [[St. Vincent de Paul High School (Petersburg, Virginia)|Bollingbook School]] opened in 1958 as a [[segregation academy]] for white students.<ref name="wm1996">{{Cite journal|last=Tobias|first=Carl|date=1996-06-01|title=Public School Desegregation in Virginia During the Post-Brown Decade|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/73967436.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/73967436.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|journal=William & Mary Law Review|volume=37|issue=4|pages=1261|issn=0043-5589}}</ref>

[[File:City Market at Petersburg, Virginia - Sarah Stierch.jpg|thumb|The [[City Market (Petersburg, Virginia)|city market]] that has been preserved and is still used as a market.]]

=== Late 20th-century economic decline ===
Retail and industry prospered until about the late 1980s. Petersburg was hit hard in 1985 when tobacco giant [[Brown & Williamson]], the city's largest manufacturer, closed a [[cigarette]] factory in town. De-industrialization, restructuring of railroads, and related national structural economic changes cost many jobs in the city, as happened in numerous older industrial cities across the North and Midwest. The post-World War II national construction of highways encouraged development outside cities and [[suburbanization]] added to problems. In addition, reacting to racial integration of schools in the 1960s, many middle-class families moved to newer housing in the predominantly white suburbs. They also moved to the Richmond metro area, where the economy was expanding with jobs in new fields of financial and retail services. Some companies shifted industrial jobs to states further south, where wages were lower, or overseas.

The declining economy increased the pressure of competition and racial tensions in Petersburg. These flared from 1968 until 1980, when black members of the City Council accused the white Mayor of racism over a re-districting plan which they and the [[ACLU]] alleged was designed to allow whites to maintain [[white supremacy]] in the city. For decades, the city government was run by a small group of white businessmen and bankers. Most were wealthy enough to own homes in the exclusive Walnut Hill neighborhood and their interrelated families had been established there for generations. In 1980 one black councilwoman described the Petersburg city government as "our own little version of the [[Byrd Machine]]", comparing it to the political organization led by [[segregationist]] [[Conservative Democrat|Democrat]], [[Harry Flood Byrd]], that controlled Virginia politics for decades.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/11/29/redistricting-in-petersburg-brings-charge-of-racial-bias/e0ccf7ff-fea0-4d37-9843-096d4cfdfc56/ |title=Redistricting in Petersburg Brings Charge of Racial Bias |last=Frankel |first=Glenn |date=1981-11-29 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=2019-08-28|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> In 1968, following the April [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]], Petersburg was the first city to designate his birthday as a holiday; in 1983 it would be memorialized as the federal [[Martin Luther King Jr. Day]], becoming a true national holiday when South Carolina became the last state to sign the observance into law.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

In an attempt to stem its economic decline, in 1971 the city completed steps begun in 1966 to annex 14 square miles of land from adjacent and predominantly white counties of Prince George and Dinwiddie. The annexation had been generally supported by the citizens of Petersburg, black and white alike, since the mid-1960s, as a necessary measure to allow the city of expand its tax base and its potential for growth and development. The city argued to the counties that it was better prepared to provide municipal-type services than the predominantly [[rural]] counties and that the city needed more land for expected new development. The annexation was opposed by the county governments, who lost most of their commercial tax base, as well as the residents of the annexed suburban areas.

Following the annexation, blacks realized that the annexations had added 8,000 new white residents. City council members were then elected at-large, requiring majority approval for each seat. Black civil rights organizations challenged the annexations in court, saying these were motivated to illegally dilute the voting power of blacks. A federal judge, citing provisions of the [[Voting Rights Act]] of 1965, agreed and ordered the city to be divided into [[single-member district]]s, or wards, to enable blacks the opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.<ref>{{cite web | title=City of Petersburg, Virginia v. United States, 354 F. Supp. 1021 – Dist. Court, Dist. of Columbia 1972 | website=Google Scholar | url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14891221630565434096 | access-date=2019-08-28}}</ref>

[[White flight]] from the annexed suburban neighborhoods began almost immediately. As residents of the city of Petersburg, their children would be required to attend the Petersburg City Schools, which had become predominantly black due to whites sending their children to private schools or moving to suburbs.

Projected industrial development of large tracts of farmland in the annexed areas failed to take place. In 1985 Petersburg again sought to annex more land from Prince George County. This time the nearby City of [[Hopewell, Virginia|Hopewell]], a city that already had huge amounts of taxable industry within its borders, joined the annexation suit to try to annex commercial areas of Prince George County, including [[Fort Lee (Virginia)|Fort Lee]] and suburban neighborhoods near the base where many military families live. Many residents of Prince George had relocated to stay within the county after the previous annexation by Petersburg. They were strongly opposed to another attempt by the cities to annex their neighborhoods. The [[U.S. Department of Defense]] also expressed strong opposition to the proposed annexation. After five years of litigation, with attorney [[Richard Cranwell]] representing Prince George County, the Virginia courts, including the [[Virginia Supreme Court]], unanimously ruled that the cities had not shown that annexation would benefit their cities, nor was it necessary to provide governmental services to Prince George residents.

The prolonged annexation fight contributed to decades of racially tinged hostility between the county and city governments that have had negative impact on regional cooperation. Prince George County is predominantly white while the city of Petersburg is roughly four-fifths black. These strained relationships have slowed regional progress and eroded business confidence, hampering economic development in the region to the present day.<ref>{{cite web | title=Chairman's Statement To Commission On Local Government | website=Prince George County, VA | date=2016-09-13 | url=http://www.princegeorgeva.org/news_detail_T6_R297.php | access-date=2019-08-28}}</ref>

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, numerous remaining retail merchants, including [[Thalhimers]], [[JC Penney]], and [[Sears Roebuck]], left older shopping areas in Petersburg for the new [[Southpark Mall (Colonial Heights, Virginia)|Southpark Mall]] that opened in 1989 in adjacent, and predominantly white, [[Colonial Heights, Virginia|Colonial Heights]]. A [[Miller & Rhoads]] store in Petersburg closed when the [[department store]] chain went out of business in 1990. The [[Ku Klux Klan]] had held marches in Colonial Heights. After the new shopping mall opened, blacks led by civil rights activist [[Curtis W. Harris]] and the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference|SCLC]] boycotted Southpark Mall for about five years. The boycott ended after the mayor of Colonial Heights, James McNeer, met with Harris and members of his board to discuss job opportunities for blacks in the mall area. McNeer later became President of [[Richard Bland College]].

In the late 20th century, Petersburg worked to restore historic buildings and attract different kinds of stores and businesses to its historic center. During the [[1993 Virginia tornado outbreak]], Petersburg was struck by an [[Fujita scale|F4]] tornado that swept through the downtown area, seriously damaging a number of restored historic buildings and businesses. The same tornado also touched down in Colonial Heights destroying a [[Walmart]] store.

=== 21st century ===
As of 2007, Petersburg has continued to evolve as a small city, and its commercial activities have changed. Downtown Petersburg, known as Old Towne, has had new businesses established in the compact core: these include indie restaurants, bars and coffee shops. The long-abandoned Walnut Mall, which closed in the early 1990s, has been demolished. The Army has expanded activities at nearby Fort Gregg-Adams, home of the [[United States Army]]'s [[Sustainment Center of Excellence]]. The Army's Logistics Branch, Ordnance, Quartermaster, and the Transportation Corps moved there from [[Fort Eustis]] following the round of [[Base Realignment and Closure]] actions in 2005.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/brac_closures_list.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/brac_closures_list.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Appendix K: Department of Defense Proposed 2005 Realignment and Closure List|date=2005|website=2005 Base Realignment and Closure|access-date=2019-08-28}}</ref>

In 2016, Petersburg faced the prospect of large-scale cuts to public services after a state audit found a $12 million (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=12000000|start_year=2016}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) budget shortfall and the prospect of insolvency by the end of the year.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Schneider|first1=Gregory S.|title=City on the brink: Petersburg can't pay its bills and time is running out|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/city-on-the-brink-petersburg-cant-pay-its-bills-and-time-is-running-out/2016/09/04/9327c962-6ef9-11e6-8533-6b0b0ded0253_story.html|access-date=5 September 2016|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|issue=5 September 2016}}</ref>

On August 22, 2022, the City of Petersburg and The Commonwealth of Virginia partners up to form "Partnership for Petersburg", which addresses to improve education, public safety, health, and transportation issues. Current governor of Virginia, [[Glenn Youngkin]], with current mayor of Petersburg, Sam Parham, local businesses, law enforcement both local and state level, education partners of local schools and surrounding university and college. Within the partnership there will be 42 initiatives, 61 organizations participating.