Carver 4-County Museum

Working in the rock quarry in Orange on April 27, 1938, World War I veteran Joseph Nathan Green, husband of Lucy H. Brown Green, and father of two young daughters was accidentally killed when a boulder crushed his skull and chest. Mrs. Green, a Culpeper school teacher and newly single mother, had been a registered voter since October 1, 1920.

She was one of 16 women of color who were the first to register to vote in Culpeper after the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. She was 24 years old when she registered, and in her early 40s when she was widowed.

The Carver 4-County Museum’s new exhibit, “Firsts As Citizens,” shares the stories of all 16 women, including literacy tests given to two of them: Eliza J. Graves and Rosa Wilhoite.

In February of this year, the museum displayed, through a series of traveling exhibits, the names of all 2,829 African American from Culpeper, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock who first registered in 1867-69. All of those displays are now brought together for the first time. “The 50-year span between African American men and women getting the vote is shown powerfully in their quest for full citizenship,” said Hortense Hinton-Jackson, vice chair of history for the George Washington Carver Regional High School Alumni Association (GWCRHSAA).

“Of particular note is an essay by prominent activist, educator and Orange County native, Nannie H. Burroughs, published in The Crisis magazine of August 1915. The exhibit also honors veterans, from those who served on both sides of the Civil War to the husbands and sons of the women we show,” she continued.

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