I've never seen anything like this before. But I'm glad we came. Since its opening in 1997, students have toured the Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County during Black History Month. The exhibits help increase students' understanding of historical events and hopefully improve their Virginia Standards of Learning exam scores.
Teachers say the museum provides students with an awareness of slavery, with a local emphasis.
Photographs displaying early African-Americans in Fauquier decorate the tree. One by one, Mrs. White holds up photographs, telling the students about each individual. She tells them about Douglass Ford, a free man who throughout his life gave talks about life as a slave, and Wormley Hughes, who proved instrumental in establishing two local churches - Mount Nebo Baptist Church in Morgantown and Providence Baptist Church in Orlean. I didn't know much about slavery before I came here. Ethiopian ceremonial baskets, hand-woven kente cloths and Somalian war shields join other items on the museum's shelves.