Williamsburg Book Festival collects oral histories about Tidewater’s lost towns
“In celebration of Black History Month, the Williamsburg Book Festival is working on its “Lost Communities of the Virginia Peninsula” project, according to festival organizer Greg Lilly.
The project aims to tell the oral histories of people who experienced the relocation by eminent domain in the 1930s and the integration of the school system in the 1970s.
With the development of Camp Peary and the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, several area communities were uprooted, including the Magruder, Lackey, Penniman and Bigler’s Mill communities.
The Williamsburg Book Festival, supported by the York County Arts Commission, is collecting names and transcribing the oral histories of locals, no matter their background.
The organization will have volunteers on-hand to record residents’ stories from 1-5 p.m. on Feb. 28 at the Stryker Center, located at 412 N. Boundary St.
“It can be black, white, Asian, it doesn’t matter — if they were here during that time and they have some experiences, we want to record them,” said Greg Lilly, organizer of the Williamsburg Book Festival.”
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WY Daily 26 February 2018.