The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation; a campus unit named after Lemon

Item

Legacies Classification
Memorial Organization
Memorial Type
Societies
Memorial Context
Reparative
Title
The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation; a campus unit named after Lemon
Background and Context
Founded by the William & Mary Board of Visitors in April 2009 by an official resolution, The Lemon Project is a multifaceted and dynamic attempt to rectify wrongs perpetrated against African Americans by William & Mary through action or inaction.

An ongoing endeavor, this program will focus on contributing to and encouraging scholarship on the 300-year relationship between African Americans and William & Mary, and building bridges between the university and Williamsburg and Greater Tidewater area. The Lemon Project is a member of the Universities Studying Slavery Consortium. The Lemon Project is generously funded by the Office of the Provost at William & Mary.

Dr. Robert Francis Engs, the man whose work helped lead to the foundation of the Lemon Project, came to William & Mary in the fall of 2008 as the Visiting JP Harrison Professor of History. He taught a course that explored the Civil War experience as described by black and white Southerners, mostly from the Tidewater area. He also researched and wrote a report on what was known about the history of African Americans at the College and the steps that needed to be taken to complete that history. His work led to the Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation. After retiring from the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Engs returned to William & Mary in the fall of 2009 to bring together a number of efforts exploring slavery, Jim Crow, integration and efforts toward College/community reconciliation, and as consulting scholar for the Lemon Project. He was an expert on the post–Civil War American South, particularly the responses of freed people and white Southerners to emancipation, and he had a special interest in the roles of education, religion and the missionaries in the emancipation process. He has written numerous articles and books, including “Freedom’s First Generation: Black Hampton, Va., 1861-1863,” and had developed an electronic archive on the middle 19th century, titled “The Crisis of the Union Archives.” He was editing a collection of Civil War letters when he passed away.

The Lemon Project is named after Lemon, a man who was enslaved by William & Mary in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Lemon Project team researches and makes public the history and experiences of African Americans at William & Mary from 1693 to the present.

Dr. Jody Allen has been involved with the Lemon Project since its founding, and for many years has served as its director. Her directorship is named after Robert Francis Engs. Her tenure as director will end on June 30, 2025.
Creator/Participating Person(s)
William & Mary Board of Visitors
Date created, installed or dedicated
April 2009
Historical Period
2000-Present: Memorialization in the Era of Universities Studying Slavery and the Black Lives Matter Movement
Funded by
William & Mary's Provost Office
Location: Institution, City, State
William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
Learn More About this Subject
About Lemon- The Lemon Project
Participant
Engs, Robert Francis
Allen, Jody

Position: 1239 (60 views)