Chesapeake Heartland’s mission to further preserve African American history in the Chesapeake region has been bolstered by the National Archives. The Starr Center recently received a prestigious $339,000 Major Collaborative Archival Initiatives grant, awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, which will support the ongoing development of the project, enabling it to expand its digital archive, develop new educational programs, and strengthen community engagement.

“The Chesapeake watershed is a heartland, if not the heartland, of African American history in this country,” Hodson Trust-Griswold Director for the Starr Center Adam Goodheart told Shore Magazine. “From the first Africans who arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake through the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements of today, Kent County is a microcosm of that history. This is the history that people carry in their hearts.” 

Goodheart is excited for the future of Chesapeake Heartland as Darius Johnson ’15 steps into his new role as director. “I can’t think of a better leader for this project than Darius,” Goodheart said, lauding Johnson as an “inspired nonprofit leader and historic preservationist, a deeply rooted member of the Eastern Shore community, and a proud alum of Washington College.”

In 2024, the project worked to preserve a piece of Chestertown’s heritage while creating a space that will benefit future generations in the College’s forthcoming Innovation Plant. Utilizing its resources and expertise, Chesapeake Heartland team members conducted significant heritage, oral history, and archival work to better tell the site’s history as well as preserve some artifacts for potential future installation. The public is invited to peruse the nearly 100 digitized archival photos and other featured collections in the project’s digital archive (see p. 46). 

As Chesapeake Heartland celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, Washington College and the Starr Center invite the community to learn more about it and engage with its ongoing work.