"Main Street Parade Charlottesville," five photographs taken by Rufus W. Holsinger on September 24, 1917. 

The photographs appear in a sequence, taking in close succession. They are labelled in the University of Virginia Library Catalogue to show the "central business district," World War One Soldiers, Red Cross Nurses, and Monticello Guard.

The below portraits (X05537B1) are similar to the other three; in them you can see African American as well as white spectators (notice, for instance, the left foreground of both photos). The second photo shows the Red Cross Nurses.

These photograph are included here in that, although not posed studio portraits of African Americans, they show actual interactions between white and black citizens at a time when segregation due to Jim Crow laws was in play. They are highly valuable in providing "visual evidence" of that lived environment. These photographs in particular are one of the few in the entire catalogue to capture an actual event as it happened (as opposed to being a posed portrait). Here, you can see small groups or clusters of African Americans amongst the white onlookers; they are all standing together, and yet are separate nonetheless. 

More information about the event and the photographs themselves will e added as it is researched.

NOTE that the name with which the portrait is labelled (or, labelled "untitled") is not necessarily the name of the sitter(s) in the portrait, but rather the name of the person who paid for the portrait when it was taken (the date and name associated with each photograph is from the business ledgers of R. W. Holsinger). 

Below: X05537B1

Below: X05537B4

Sources

- "Main Street Parade Charlottesville," 1917-09-24 photograph in UVA Library Catalogue (X05537B1)

- "Main Street Parade Charlottesville," 1917-09-24 photograph in UVA Library Catalogue (X05537B4)

SEE ALSO:

Holsinger Image Gallery of African Americans

J. F. Bell Funeral Home Records

Charlottesville City Directory, 1914-15 [Hathi Trust] 

1870 & 1910 U. S. Census - Charlottesville & Esmont Communities

First published: March 5, 2021

Return to the Holsinger Main Page or African-American Portraiture List of Names