Shenandoah Valley Back Heritage Project created self-guided driving of historical African American sites of the Shenandoah Valley. Roots Run Deep features historic African American churches, burial grounds, businesses and schools and more. Local historians, educators, and members of the community assisted in creating our tours. It is critical to tell the full history by recovering, preserving and sharing our findings. We divided the Shenandoah Valley into regions by county. As of April 29, 2023 we will have funded and created tours for half of the Valley. We still have more to cover.
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Each tour has a tour booklet that are available for download digitally.  All booklets include addresses, directions from each site, photos and descriptions of each site. You will find the tour booklets for our tours on rootsrundeep.org. Click on the tour name to go to that tour's page where a tour booklet can be found.  These documents can be downloaded and printed for your convenience. You can always find these at the SVBHP Heritage Center. ​

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Communities 

​Schools

Churches

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Cemeteries

Businesses

Local Historical Figures

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Friendly City Food Co-op Exhibit 

150 E Wolfe Street 
Harrisonburg, Virginia 
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We were happy to work with the Friendly City Food Co-op on the exhibit in their café. We asked for input from our friends who knew "What had gone before 1850 - ..." on this site. We will be adding information and new historic sites around the Friendly City Food Co-op, as we discover them. Many thanks to all who came out to help with this exhibit. Stop by and enjoy some great healthy food while learning about the African American families and businesses that were there before the Friendly City Food Co-op.

An interview with author Ryan Bachman about his research and book, African-American Property-Ownership in Downtown Harrisonburg 1850-1860.