Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 61

FACING PAGE:
The Passel public
history group is
headed by Josh
Howard and Elizabeth
Catte.
LEFT: The lake
at Green Pastures,
in Virginia, offered
African Americans a
place to gather in the
days of segregation.

one who wants the story of
"the other side."
Catte was co-editor of the
recently released book "55
Strong: Inside the West Virginia Teachers' Strike," and
is currently writing a history
of Western State Hospital
in Staunton, Virginia. Once
known as the Western State
Lunatic Asylum, the 190-yearold institution was the site
of legal forced sterilizations
from 1924 until the law was
repealed in the 1970s.
Partner Josh Howard's
work is equally rooted in
place, and fueled by a passion
for public and applied history
as an agent for change. "There
are many projects, ideas, topics and organizations that remain under-served
because they don't represent aspects of
history that funders want to invest in,"
Howard says.
More than half of the work that Pas-

sel does is pro bono, given to
small nonprofits without resources to hire needed help.
Assistance was provided to the
Appalachian African American
Cultural Center in Pennington Gap as they regrouped.
"We want Passel to be a
tool that helps improve the
balance, whether it's helping connect individuals to
resources or taking an active
role in planning interpretive
projects," Howard says.
Pro bono work drew Howard back to the Longdale area
of Alleghany County, Virginia,
where his family has deep
roots. And where the Forest
Service operated from 1938 to
1950 the only recreation area designated
for African Americans in Virginia...and
quite possibly the only one in America.
It was called Green Pastures, the park,
and was built in 1938 by Civilian Conservation Corps workers at the request of the

Once known as the Western State
Lunatic Asylum, the 190-year-old
institution was the site of legal
forced sterilizations...

Clifton Forge chapter of the NAACP. In
the introduction to the recently published
What's Your Story? oral history of Green
Pastures, Howard writes about the movement to provide African Americans a place
to gather and be outdoors in the Jim Crow
era:
A protest campaign, spurred forward by local African Americans and the Clifton Forge
chapter of the NAACP, challenged the unwritten rules of segregation at recreation areas
throughout the state. Fearing these challenges
might be met with escalating protest...the Forest Service agreed to build a recreation area explicitly and exclusively for African-American
use.
African Americans came from all over
to Green Pastures, which on the Fourth
of July drew busloads from as far away as
Norfolk and Washington, D.C. Today, it's
a lonely, beautiful place off Old U.S. Route
60, where a small lake mirrors surrounding trees and the rock and stone bathhouses and picnic pavilion still stand.
Howard played there as a child after
the park was integrated. And now he's
working to help restore the park. He successfully lobbied to have Green Pastures/
Longdale Recreation Area on the 2018
List of Most Endangered Historic Sites in
Virginia. And currently he's working with
the Forest Service to get the site on the National Register of Historic Places.
If he succeeds, it will bring much-needed attention to and funding possibilities
for the renovation of a unique place and
time in American history.
Howard's work on behalf of Green
Pastures is representative of what he and
Catte have set out to do for the region.
Working with teachers, librarians, community groups, union organizers, and
faith leaders, the Passel public historians
provide historical expertise and research
assistance so that the past can be accurately told and preserved, and the way forward is illuminated.
"People, in this moment, are very eager for history-especially Appalachian
history-that is nuanced and inclusive,"
Howard says.
Elizabeth Catte is a writer to watch, and
Josh Howard's research and collaborative
skills will take him far. Together, they're
out to open doors, share true stories, and
bring change to these mountains. We can
be very glad they're back home.

MARCH/APRIL 2019

Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019