Annual Programs
Come and celebrate with us those moments of African American liberation! Each year the Center brings our community together to learn and commune.
GREENS COOK OFF
The annual JSAAHC Greens Cook Off where local cooks face off with Greens, Mac-n-Cheese and Pound Cake to find out who gets crowned the best happens on September 7, 2024 from 11am to 3pm.
Sign up to be a cook and show off your skills.
If you would like to be a cook this year or be part of the planning email publicprograms@jeffschoolheritagecenter.org.
JUNETEENTH 2025
Also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Liberation Day commemorates the day that enslaved people in Galveston Texas were finally emancipated. Although originated in Texas, Juneteenth became more widely celebrated in the South during the 1920s.
Line up for the parade begins at 9am at Jackson P. Burley parking lot and the parade will end at the parking lot of JSAAHC.
The Black Business Expo will be on the yard with over 20 Black owned buisesses, a pitch contest and entrprenurial panels. The main stage will have an Emancipation Concert featuring artists like Ellis Williams, Ezra Hamilton, Raymond Brooks, Chris Redd, Ti Ames and many more.
Click the button below to sign up to walk in the parade!
We’ll see you on June 15!
Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa was created in 1966 during the aftermath of the Watts riots by Maulana Karenga to give blacks an alternative to the existing Christmas holiday. Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza meaning first fruits. The holiday is centered around the Nguzo Saba (the seven principles of African heritage).
- Umoja—Unity
- Kujichagulia—Self determination
- Ujima—collective work
- Ujamaa —cooperative economics
- Nia- purpose
- Kuumba—creativity
- Imani—Faith
On December 14 at 4pm we will gather to celebrate the holidays by learning about Kwanzaa.
Granville “Buster” Braxton will play an opening drum call before a libation is poured. Buster will play his original music while you shop for those last minute presents. There will be a kids crafts table where they can make presents for their loved ones.
Local practitioners will present a Capeoira demonstration and we end the afternoon with a performance by Horace Scruggs and Soul Anthology that concludes with a sing-a long of holiday favorites.
The event is free and open to the public, but we ask that you register.
Liberation and Freedom Day
At the time of the Civil War, 53.3 percent, some 14,000 residents of Charlottesville and Albemarle County were enslaved, an historical fact which remained little known until the 2016 work of the city’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces (BRC).
At the BRC’s recommendation, in 2017 the Charlottesville City Council proclaimed March 3 to be Liberation and Freedom Day.
The celebration commemorates the March 3-6, 1865, arrival of Union cavalry in the area, when town and university officials surrendered at the current site of the UVA Chapel, and thousands of enslaved residents took the opportunity to escape and follow U.S. troops as they continued their advance toward Petersburg, Virginia.
March 1, 2025 JSAAHC and Prolyfyk will cosponsor a race. The route, totaling a little over 8 miles, will coincide with important markers in the Black history of Charlottesville.
Evelyn L. Barbour Series
Our series is named after Evelyn L. Barbour, who passed in 2014 at the age of 78 after a short illness. She attended the Jefferson School and was among the first graduating class Jackson P. Burley High School. She was an alumnus of Virginia Union University and the University of Virginia School of Education. She taught in various school systems and retired after more than 30 years of service. Ms. Barbour was a lifelong member of Mount Zion First African Baptist Church and her most notable work in the church was her role as historian. This series celebrates her work documenting history by creating oral histories in the form of conversation and connection.
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Hours
Heritage Center
Tuesday – Friday 1.00 pm – 6.00 pm
Saturday 10 am – 1 pm
Closed Monday & Sunday
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