Event Details
Join us for “A Place Called Ilda.” Author Tom Shoop will discuss his 2024 book, subtitled “Race and Resilience at a Northern Virginia Crossroads.” The crossroads is Guinea Road and Little River Turnpike. Ilda was a racially integrated, now largely forgotten community, established after the Civil War by two formerly enslaved African American blacksmiths. Little River UCC’s 13.5-acre property was part of that community, and the church is prominently mentioned in Shoop’s book.
Ilda flourished as a racially integrated community before the Jim Crow era, but eventually Black residents were obliged to walk to Merrifield or Falls Church for both church and school. Today, there are many places of worship in the former Ilda, none of them restricted by race. Yet, the hate and prejudice that distorted and dismembered Ilda are still with us. Witness the recent white supremacist, antisemitic, and homophobic attacks on Pozez Jewish Community Center and Little River UCC. “A Place Called Ilda” weaves together accounts of horse thievery, attempted murder, savage beatings, hate crimes, and a long- forgotten cemetery in a gripping and often moving narrative.
Free and open to all! A book sale and signing will accompany Tom Shoop’s presentation.In-person or online at bit.ly/LR-Ilda
