ROANOKE, Va. – One Roanoke woman is making sure black history in the Star City is not forgotten even as Black History Month comes to an end.
Her name is Mignon Chubb Hale, and when she was growing up in Roanoke, the city wasn’t as inclusive as it is today.
Imagine a city under segregation. The Gainsboro community was where black people lived, went to school, church and opened businesses.
Decades later, Hale makes it her mission to take people aboard a tour that reveals how much black history is in the fabric of the city’s history.
“My name is Mignon Chubb Hale and I will be your tour guide.”
The tour begins at the Gainsboro Library, now a state historic landmark in one of Roanoke’s oldest communities. For Hale, it’s a sacred place.
“This is the only library I could go to. All the rich history and everything and I couldn’t go to any other library, this was it," said Hale.
From there, on a full Roanoke Parks and Recreation bus, Hale makes stops at buildings and places that look nothing like their iconic past.
Standing in front of the Dumas Hotel, Hale said, “We had people like Lena Horne Count Basie, Louie Armstrong. They could stay here but they’d perform at Hotel Roanoke but they weren’t welcome to stay at the Hotel Roanoke.”
History like that is what blows away anyone who is along for the ride, like Martha McNair.
McNair wasn’t born in Roanoke, but moved to the city in 1975. While on the tour, she said, “The history I didn’t know or wasn’t taught about I see that Roanoke has great history, I am so proud.”
Most importantly, this tour is educating people on the place they call home.
Hale said, “We have such a rich history here in Roanoke. If you live in a place you should be knowledgeable of the different important events.”
Hale can only hope shedding light on the accomplishments and landmarks of this historic black community will encourage and inspire a better future as it did for her.
“When I went to Addison it was a high school, segregated but I concluded my teaching career at Addison and it was integrated.”
Mignon Chubb Hale does this local black history tour 3 or 4 times a year but you can take a tour on your own, any time of the year.
For the list of stops and their historic significance, click here.
There is black history throughout Southwest and Central Virginia.
In Lynchburg, you can visit the Legacy Museum.
In Franklin Court, there is the Booker T. Washington National Monument.
Wytheville also has a local history tour, check out the African American Heritage Driving Tour.
