Digital Exhibits
Black Lives Next Door
Black Lives Next Door began as 2021 summer research into a Black community that stood on what is now campus land—referred to by University boosters at the time as "the Negro ... next door." Were they forced out? Did they resist? Where did they go?
Community Histories
CML's community projects provides the public more access to knowledge traditionally walled off in archives and academic settings. Our respectful community approach stresses learning from Black communities to learn about them, supplementing scholarly analyses and archival documents with local history-keepers' sharing of photographs, documents and artifacts and family stories long cherished in private hands.
George Mason, the University
A collection of archival and research projects centered on campus and life at George Mason University. These projects include the Benches at Mason; the History Trail; Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial; and Racial Reckoning.
The Mason Family
Robert A. Rutland's authoritative 1970 Papers of George Mason, filling three volumes, contains no references to Mason's slaveholding or the bonded individuals who made his comfort possible. Our ongoing digital project revisits those same papers and others from repositories across the region to more fully understand the roles of George Mason IV, his businesses, and his kin in molding slavery's lasting legacies.