It is 1900 and you are an American teenager living in Alexandria County, Virginia. Alexandria county is just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Sadly, you and your family are being evicted from your home. The area where you have been living, known as Freedman’s Village, is being closed.
Historian Lindsey Bestebreurtje created this online interactive journal based on her research of Freedman’s Village and Arlington’s African American communities. She is a historian at George Mason University and wrote an article published in the 2015 Arlington Historical Magazine entitled: “A View from Hall’s Hill: African American Community Development in Arlington.”