"Remembering Tillery..."
A New Deal Resettlement
Historic Community Guide
Remembering Tillery is a historic community guide put together by the Concerned Citizens of Tillery History Committee in 1995. It is a collection of a selected number of historic sites of interest to current and former Tillery residents and to Scholars of African-American and Southern history. The tour sites were chosen by the Remembering Tillery Historic Committee for their important contribution to the development of the Tillery Community over the past 100 years. While this Guide is not comprehensive, it is an important first step toward remembering, reclaiming and preserving the diverse histories of this community.
A Tillery Homeplace circa 1936.
This Guide is but one of the components of the 1995 "Remembering Tillery... A New Deal Resettlement Celebration." CCT also sponsored a history exhibit which features photos and documents collected from current and former Tillery residents. The exhibit was housed in the William Taylor and Madeleine Smith Taylor Homeplace, former settlers on the Roanoke Resettlement Farm. The exhibit was open from August 19, 1995 until September 16, 1995. In addition to the exhibit, CCT produced a one-act play that opened on September 16, 1995, based on stories collected from Tillery residents. On September 2, 1995, CCT conducted history workshops in which members of the history committee lead discussions in the practical uses of the Tillery history.
The 1995 Celebration was simply the first step in a five-year long project that seeks to uncover the rich and significant history of our community. The long-term goals of the Remembering Tillery Project are to collect interviews, photos and documents so that they be preserved in a museum. The museum will be open to the public so that interested persons may research family descendants or do academic reseach on African-American life in Halifax County. The information collected will also be used to conduct workshops and seminars on the significance of the Tillery community's history as an African-American landowning community.
"Remembering Tillery... A New Deal Resettlement Historic Community Guide" features historical documents, photographs and stories...
This Historic Guide, 1st Edition is respectfully dedicated to William Taylor and Matthew Grant who were honored as Community Life Achievers by the Concerned Citizens of Tillery April 22, 1995.
