The Westwood Community

SA-121

Formerly enslaved African Americans established Westwood Village here after the Civil War. Residents built houses, a church, a school, and businesses, forming a vibrant, self-sustaining community with many social and cultural organizations. The City of Richmond annexed Westwood from Henrico County in 1942. In the mid-1940s, residents resisted several attempts by the city to demolish the community and replace it with a park. Residents also combated segregation in Richmond's public schools. A student from Westwood became the first African American to attend Westhampton Junior High (in 1961) and Thomas Jefferson High (in 1962) after a federal court decision in Warden v. Richmond School Board.

Department of Historic Resources, 2019

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Map of Henrico County, Virginia (T. Crawford Redd & Bro., 14 Feb. 1916). http://westwoodbaptist-va.org/about.html Richmond Afro-American, 1, 29 March, 17 May, 25 Oct. 1947. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 25 March 1944, 28 March, 17 May, 11 July 1945, 18, 25 March, 2, 4, 5, 8, 15, 21 April, 1 May 1947, 27 April 1948, 3 Aug. 1980. Shockoe Examiner: https://theshockoeexaminer.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-forgotten-civil-rights-battlefield.html Selden Richardson, Built by Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond (Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2008). Louis H. Manarin and Charles H. Peple, The History of Henrico County (The County of Henrico, 2011). Brenda Dabney Nichols, African Americans of Henrico County (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2010). The Westwood Community: Built on Faith and Resilience (Film), Henrico County Public Relations & Media Services, 2018.