Unequal Opportunity

Conversation with Historian Edwin B Henderson

UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITY GUEST Edwin B. Henderson, II was born in Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, attended the Laboratory School there, then attended Boggs Academy in Georgia for high school.  Returning to Tuskegee, Mr. Henderson received a bachelor’s degree in history, and then moved to California to study photography and television engineering.  Moving back to the East Coast, receiving a graduate assistanceship in Tuskegee University’s School of Education and received a Master of Counseling and Student Services.   Upon completion of grad school, he then moved to Falls Church, Virginia to take possession of his Grandparents home, which is now on the City of Falls Church  and the Virginia state registry of historic places.  In 1994, Mr. Henderson received a fellowship with the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help’s “Teachers for Africa Program” and was placed at the United States International University In Nairobi, Kenya. He has been an educator for twenty-five years, retiring from Fairfax County Public School’s in 2010.  In Falls Church, Mr. Henderson found that the history of the establishment of the first rural branch of the NAACP in the nation was only one of the many African American stories that were no longer a part of the narrative in Falls Church, Virginia.  Therefore, Henderson and others founded the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, Inc., a non-profit public organization whose mission is to promote awareness of African American history and Northern Virginia’s civil rights pioneers, through the preservation of sacred places within that community.  He is also co-founder of Henderson House, Inc, a non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve the home of Edwin B. and Mary Ellen Henderson, as well as their historical and archival properties.

Conversation with Historian & Author Jonathan Noyalas - Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era

UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITY CONVERSATION WITH JONATHAN NOYALAS Unequal Opportunity podcast goal is to equip podcast listeners with the historical context to build a Virginia business culture that allows every citizen to fully participate in the economy. Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah University's McCormick Civil War Institute and a professor in the history department at Shenandoah University. Noyalas is the founding editor of Journal of the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era, the author or editor of 15 books, including Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era, and has published more than 100 essays, articles, chapters, and reviews in a variety of scholarly and popular publications including Civil War Times, America's Civil War, Civil War History, North & South, and Blue & Gray. Noyalas has consulted on a variety of public history projects with groups such as the National Park Service, National Geographic, American Battlefield Trust, and the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District. He has appeared on C-SPAN's American History TV, PCN, and NPR's "With Good Reason." Prof. Noyalas is the recipient of numerous awards for his teaching and scholarship including Shenandoah University's Exemplary Teaching Award for the first-year seminar and Shenandoah's Wilkins Award. In 2016 he received the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia's Outstanding Faculty Award--the highest honor that can be bestowed upon someone in higher education in Virginia. Shenandoah University McCormick Civil War Institute  [https://www.su.edu/mcwi/]

UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITY WITH DR. BETTY KILBY

Dr. Betty Kilby and the Kilby family have always believed in the right to a quality education for all people. In 1958, she became the reluctant plaintiff in the case Betty Ann Kilby, et al., vs. Warren Country Board of Education and her fight for integration changed the course of her life and countless others. Betty graduated from Warren County High School and went on to earn her A.A.S. in Business Management; a BS in Business Administration; and an MBA with a concentration in Productivity Improvement in the Workplace. She also has an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Shenandoah University. She is the author of “Wit, Will & Walls” and is the main character of a documentary film with the same title. Betty also co-authored a second book, “Cousins,” which was released in March of 2021. Betty is also a mother and grandmother who lives with her husband, Pastor David Baldwin, in Texas. “Our history is rich with the accomplishments of the African American people. We cannot reject our past, nor can we change it. We must embrace it and take comfort in knowing that our people came through such trials not just once, but over and over again. But in the end, we are triumphant.” - Dr. You can read more about Dr. Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin  [https://bettykilby.com/]