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Raising the Shade
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Franklin County 1850-1910
In a southern Virginia community, there is more to Civil War history than people might know.
That there is more to the story is important to many people who live here.
Often overlooked is the story of the United States Colored Troops and the role of African Americans in securing the freedom of enslaved people, as well as promoting equality, opportunity and justice for all Americans.
Raising the Shade, Franklin County 1850 – 1910, will explore what life was like before, during, and after the Civil War by engaging the community in conversation and activities from July 2024 to December 2025.
Plans include a daylong public education and discussion forum, scheduled for May 31, 2025 at the W.E. Skelton 4-H Educational Conference Center to allow participants to explore what life was like in
Franklin County before, during, and after the Civil War.
Raising the Shade will culminate in erecting a monument honoring 70 United States Colored Troops (USCT), whose birthplace was noted as Franklin County, VA, in military records.
Master sculptors Paul DiPasquale and Rick Weaver have been commissioned to design the bronze and granite monument, in collaboration with the community. DiPasquale’s notable works include a statue of Arthur Ashe in Richmond and the King Neptune statue in Virginia Beach, while Weaver is known in this region for his sculpture of John Chavis on the campus of Washington & Lee University in Lexington.
"School history lessons did not include the fact that Black people had a hand in their own liberation from enslavement.
Learning that they did have agency
—and were not simply rescued —was empowering.
The opportunity that MAAV has provided to allow the Franklin County NAACP to share these stories is exciting."
-Glenna Moore, USCT Ancestry committee chair
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Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia is based in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech and is part of a $250 million initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation. The Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project began in 2020 to support public projects that reimagine commemorative spaces and transform the way history is told in the United States. MAAV is led by Dr. Emily Satterwhite of Virginia Tech’s Appalachian Studies Program and Dr. Katrina Powell of Virginia Tech’s Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies.
MAAV is proud to enable, support, and reward meaningful and extensive university-community collaborations. Through these collaborations, MAAV works to ensure greater participation in decision-making and governance by community partners. They are committed to collective, reflexive, and reciprocal working relationships through which new projects develop in coordination with organizations, constituents, stakeholders, and designers. Raising the Shade, Franklin County 1850 -1910, is one of nine MAAV Projects.
To learn more about those projects please visit www.moremountainstories.org.
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