09/29/2026
Special exhibit at County Library through Oct. 3rd
By Ashley Miller The Northern Virginia Daily Sep 22, 2026
A traveling exhibit highlighting the contributions of pioneering African Americans in Virginia is making its way to libraries and historical institutions across the Commonwealth, allowing communities to learn about individuals whose work reached far beyond the pages of history books.
“Strong Men & Women in Virginia History” is an annual panel exhibit produced through the Library of Virginia and the Dominion Energy Foundation. It features African Americans from different periods and walks of life. Each year, a new group of individuals is selected, with the exhibit traveling for approximately a year before a new exhibit is produced.
The Shenandoah County Library in Edinburg will host the exhibit through Oct. 3.
The exhibit is designed to highlight the many ways African Americans have contributed to Virginia communities, rather than focusing solely on the better-known stories of the civil rights movement.
“This year they have four individuals that they highlight,” said Shenandoah County Library archivist Zach Hottel.
Among this year's honorees is Shira Johnson of Harrisonburg, who was the first African American student at James Madison University to earn a degree. The other individuals represent a range of professions and areas of service, including public health, the military and corporate law.
The individuals, Hottel explained, were selected through a nomination process. Members of the public, institutions and organizations throughout Virginia nominated people for consideration, with the nominations then reviewed as part of the selection process.
For Hottel, the variety of people represented in the exhibit is part of what makes it meaningful.
“African Americans are impacting so many different aspects of their community that are often forgotten,” he said.
While civil rights leaders are an important part of Virginia's history, African Americans have also made significant contributions through their professions, community involvement and service to others, Hottel said.
“It's not just highlighting people that made huge impacts in terms of, like, civil rights advocates,” he said. “So, all these people have that kind of impact, but they have impact in their communities and impact in their employment, right? And impact in the way that they serve other people.”
Hottel said he is particularly drawn to the stories of people who lived in the years immediately after the Civil War.
“I think the ones that do resonate with me are people that lived through Reconstruction here in Virginia and made huge impacts in what was really an evolving society,” he said. “And faced some pretty horrible things to make that happen.”
The traveling nature of the exhibit also allows those stories to reach audiences well beyond the communities where the featured individuals lived and worked. Hottel said exhibits are displayed at libraries, historical societies, government centers and other institutions around the state.
According to Hottel, the exhibits are relatively simple for host institutions to accommodate. They are delivered and installed for about six weeks before being collected and moved to another location.
The Library of Virginia's traveling exhibits have covered a variety of topics over the years, including Virginia women, the 100th anniversary of Prohibition and the Mountain Lake deaf community.
For Hottel, however, the greatest value of the current exhibit is its ability to connect statewide history with local history.
“Historic stories are very local. People make bigger connections to local things,” he said.
He said highlighting specific individuals accomplishes two things. First, it recognizes the roles those individuals played in their own communities. At the same time, it can encourage visitors to think about similar stories closer to home.
“So even if you're not from Harrisonburg or Richmond or Chesapeake or these other places they're from, your community probably had someone that did something similar, right?” he said. “It makes you think about who that is in your community or what role, or even what impact these people could have on your local community.”
That local connection is particularly important to Hottel, whose work centers on local history.
“A lot of times we talk about big historic themes, but I live in the local history world, and I think that is where people make the strongest connections,” he said.
The Shenandoah County Library, 514 Stoney Creek Blvd. in Edinburg, is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
— Contact Ashley Miller at [email protected]
A traveling exhibit highlighting the contributions of pioneering African Americans in Virginia is making its way to libraries and historical institutions across the Commonwealth, allowing communities to learn about individuals
