Growing up during the Jim Crow ERA and the transition to Integration in Orange County Virginia
- OCAAHS
- Jun 24
- 1 min read
James Monroe presented a talk about his life in Orange in the 1960s, “Growing Up During Jim Crow and the Transition to Integration,” as part of the Juneteenth celebration hosted by the Orange County African American Historical Society (OCAAHS) on Friday, June 19, at the African American Commemorative Park at the corner of Church and Chapman streets in Orange.
Before joining the Air Force, Monroe, who goes by Bruce, witnessed plenty of unequal opportunity and unequal treatment in his hometown. When he was growing up, for instance, real estate agents would not allow Black people to buy property outside the county’s Black neighborhoods, many of which started out as Freedmen’s communities during Reconstruction—Freetown, Jacksontown, Tibbstown and Little Petersburg, among others.
