BWUFA Legacy Group
Beyond the Legacy of Enslavement
Black Women United for Action: Legacy Group Fellowship Award
The BWUFA Legacy Group made a presentation in June 2025 to the George Washington Presidential Library to award a Library Research Fellowship. This fellowship was created as a result of a nearly 40 year ongoing partnership between BWUFA and the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association (MVLA). The establishment of the annual slave memorial commemoration is meant to recognize the enslaved who lived and are buried on the estate and also those throughout our country. This event memorializes their lives and contributions to the George Washington family estate. A fundraising gala was held in collaboration with BWUFA and MVLA at Mount Vernon to launch the official partnership in October 2023.
The fellowship supports scholars working on research questions related to Black history from the founding of the United States and enslavement in this country, and its impact on descendants to the present generations. This endowed fellowship seeks to highlight the strength and resilience of enslaved communities in recognition of ongoing contributions to the history of America. In June 2025, BWUFA presented a check for $100,000 to Mount Vernon in support of our fellowship. BWUFA recognizes and appreciates the collaboration and partnership with the MVLA, and the many supportive friends and community leaders who attended and donated to the gala, launching this new intiative. We look forward to the help of the community to support ongoing efforts to fund this fellowship and ongoing partnerships to recognize the strengths and resilience of the enslaved and their decendants to the history of America, now more than ever.
At the Annual Slave Memorial event, we recognize the enslavement of Black men, women, children, and families who lived their lives in bondage and servitude, without experiencing their God-given rights to freedom.
The enslaved people who lived and died on the Mount Vernon estate in the service of President George Washington, represented a small sample of millions of enslaved persons throughout the United States. This practice of enslavement played a role in ensuring that the work and functioning of the estate continued while President George Washington served his country.
The labor, skills, ingenuity, innovations, inventions, and creations implemented through the work at the farm were a vital part of the functioning of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.
The rise of the United States as a thriving nation was in part due to the contributions of Black people, whose free labor helped establish an economic foundation. The George Washington Presidential Library's Black Women United for Action Research Fellowship will engage in uncovering, through research, how the enslavement of Blacks in America demonstrated resilience and empowerment despite being denied basic freedoms. The lessons for the next generations of younger descendants of Blacks must explore the practice of enslavement from a different perspective that highlights the strengths, resilience, and empowerment of the enslaved person. Although slavery was an inhumane institution, those who managed to survive its practices, and even raise families and children, represented strength and the ability to survive many challenges.
Those living under enslavement systems that did not offer freedom as an option in their lives were desperate to obtain freedom. They valued freedom rather than domination by those who would block freedom for Blacks. They were willing to give up their lives for the chance to obtain freedom. A generation of young people often takes freedom for granted, but the enslaved people did not take it for granted. How easily we give up our right to freedom, to vote, to be educated, to advocate for equal justice under the law, the freedom of religion, and more.
Are there lessons that we can learn about fighting for freedom, surviving difficult situations, preserving family relationships, and the transition from slavery to freedom and self-determination?
Dr. Molly E. Davis
Lead Scholar, BWUFA Legacy Group Initiative
Black Women United for Action: Legacy Group Fellowship Award
The BWUFA Legacy Group made a presentation in June 2025 to the George Washington Presidential Library to award a Library Research Fellowship. This fellowship was created as a result of a nearly 40 year ongoing partnership between BWUFA and the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association (MVLA). The establishment of the annual slave memorial commemoration is meant to recognize the enslaved who lived and are buried on the estate and also those throughout our country. This event memorializes their lives and contributions to the George Washington family estate. A fundraising gala was held in collaboration with BWUFA and MVLA at Mount Vernon to launch the official partnership in October 2023.
The fellowship supports scholars working on research questions related to Black history from the founding of the United States and enslavement in this country, and its impact on descendants to the present generations. This endowed fellowship seeks to highlight the strength and resilience of enslaved communities in recognition of ongoing contributions to the history of America. In June 2025, BWUFA presented a check for $100,000 to Mount Vernon in support of our fellowship. BWUFA recognizes and appreciates the collaboration and partnership with the MVLA, and the many supportive friends and community leaders who attended and donated to the gala, launching this new intiative. We look forward to the help of the community to support ongoing efforts to fund this fellowship and ongoing partnerships to recognize the strengths and resilience of the enslaved and their decendants to the history of America, now more than ever.
At the Annual Slave Memorial event, we recognize the enslavement of Black men, women, children, and families who lived their lives in bondage and servitude, without experiencing their God-given rights to freedom.
The enslaved people who lived and died on the Mount Vernon estate in the service of President George Washington, represented a small sample of millions of enslaved persons throughout the United States. This practice of enslavement played a role in ensuring that the work and functioning of the estate continued while President George Washington served his country.
The labor, skills, ingenuity, innovations, inventions, and creations implemented through the work at the farm were a vital part of the functioning of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.
The rise of the United States as a thriving nation was in part due to the contributions of Black people, whose free labor helped establish an economic foundation. The George Washington Presidential Library's Black Women United for Action Research Fellowship will engage in uncovering, through research, how the enslavement of Blacks in America demonstrated resilience and empowerment despite being denied basic freedoms. The lessons for the next generations of younger descendants of Blacks must explore the practice of enslavement from a different perspective that highlights the strengths, resilience, and empowerment of the enslaved person. Although slavery was an inhumane institution, those who managed to survive its practices, and even raise families and children, represented strength and the ability to survive many challenges.
Those living under enslavement systems that did not offer freedom as an option in their lives were desperate to obtain freedom. They valued freedom rather than domination by those who would block freedom for Blacks. They were willing to give up their lives for the chance to obtain freedom. A generation of young people often takes freedom for granted, but the enslaved people did not take it for granted. How easily we give up our right to freedom, to vote, to be educated, to advocate for equal justice under the law, the freedom of religion, and more.
Are there lessons that we can learn about fighting for freedom, surviving difficult situations, preserving family relationships, and the transition from slavery to freedom and self-determination?
Dr. Molly E. Davis
Lead Scholar, BWUFA Legacy Group Initiative
BWUFA's Endowed Fellowship Recipients
Sherri Burr Vernon, J.D. and MPA-First Recipient, Class of 2025
Generational Impact: An Economic Comparison of Mount Vernon's Enslaved Population
Who Received Freedom in 1800 with Those Who Remained Enslaved until 1863
Burr is the Dickason Chair and Regents
Professor of Law Emerita at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Her 27th book, Complicated Lives: Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619-1865 (Carolina Academic Press, 2019), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in History. She earned her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, her MPA from Princeton University,
and J.D. from Yale Law School. In 2015, she became a fellow at the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. At Mount Vernon, she tested the question, "How harmful was slavery to individuals and successive generations of their families?" She compared the post-freedom economic lives of enslaved persons at Mount Vernon who were owned by George Washington to those who belonged to the Custis Dower Estate.
Sherri Burr Vernon, J.D. and MPA-First Recipient, Class of 2025
Generational Impact: An Economic Comparison of Mount Vernon's Enslaved Population
Who Received Freedom in 1800 with Those Who Remained Enslaved until 1863
Burr is the Dickason Chair and Regents
Professor of Law Emerita at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Her 27th book, Complicated Lives: Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619-1865 (Carolina Academic Press, 2019), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in History. She earned her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, her MPA from Princeton University,
and J.D. from Yale Law School. In 2015, she became a fellow at the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. At Mount Vernon, she tested the question, "How harmful was slavery to individuals and successive generations of their families?" She compared the post-freedom economic lives of enslaved persons at Mount Vernon who were owned by George Washington to those who belonged to the Custis Dower Estate.
Felicia A. Bell, Ph.D.-Second Recipient, Class of 2026
The Negroes Alone Work: Enslaved and Free Black Craftsmen and the Construction of the United States Capitol
Felicia Bell's career has included leadership roles such as Director of Education and Programs at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, Assistant Professor of History and the inaugural Director of Honors at Savannah State University, Director of Troy University's Rosa Parks Museum, Director of Public Engagement for the Smithsonian's Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past, and Senior Advisor to the Director at the
Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. In 2007, she provided expert witness testimony to Congress based on her doctoral dissertation research about the enslaved and free Black craftsmen used to construct the United States Capitol. She is a contributing author to Landscapes in the Making (Harvard University Press, 2025), where she delves further into her research topic. Dr. Bell received recognition by the Alabama House of Representatives for her distinguished work at the Rosa Parks Museum. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Savannah State University, a Master of Arts in historic preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design, and a Doctor of Philosophy in U.S. history from Howard University.
The Negroes Alone Work: Enslaved and Free Black Craftsmen and the Construction of the United States Capitol
Felicia Bell's career has included leadership roles such as Director of Education and Programs at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, Assistant Professor of History and the inaugural Director of Honors at Savannah State University, Director of Troy University's Rosa Parks Museum, Director of Public Engagement for the Smithsonian's Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past, and Senior Advisor to the Director at the
Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. In 2007, she provided expert witness testimony to Congress based on her doctoral dissertation research about the enslaved and free Black craftsmen used to construct the United States Capitol. She is a contributing author to Landscapes in the Making (Harvard University Press, 2025), where she delves further into her research topic. Dr. Bell received recognition by the Alabama House of Representatives for her distinguished work at the Rosa Parks Museum. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Savannah State University, a Master of Arts in historic preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design, and a Doctor of Philosophy in U.S. history from Howard University.