2019 COMMEMORATION, AMERICAN EVOLUTION AMERICAN COMMEMORATION, 2019 STEERING COMMITTEE REPORT STEERING 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution AMERICAN EVOLUTION commemorated the 400th anniversary of key historical events that occurred in Virginia in 1619 that continue to influence America today. Along with notable Virginia institutions across the Commonwealth and national partners, AMERICAN EVOLUTION launched a series of educational programs, signature events, and legacy projects of national and international significance to build awareness of Virginia’s role in the creation of the United States and to reinforce Virginia’s leadership in education, tourism, and economic development. AMERICAN EVOLUTION commemorates the ongoing journey toward the key ideals of Democracy, Diversity, and Opportunity. STEERING COMMITTEE REPORT ©2019 Commemoration, AMERICAN EVOLUTION | August 2020 / 1,200 2019 COMMEMORATION, AMERICAN EVOLUTION Published by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia, designated in 2013 by the Virginia General Assembly “as the lead executive branch agency” charged with planning and implementing the 2019 Commemoration, AMERICAN EVOLUTION. Report design and printing paid for with private funds. No part of this report may be reprinted without the permission of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. COVER PHOTOS Top: (L to R: Jerry Long, Michael Bell, John Woodliff, Ed Coleman, Johnathan Courtney, Bill Dodson) reenact the First Official English Thanksgiving in 1619 at the Virginia Thanksgiving Festival. Middle: Dancers from Atumpan Dance Theatre (L to R: Camille Staten, Christiana Staten, and 2019 COMMEMORATION, AMERICAN EVOLUTION Morgan Williams) perform during First African Landing Weekend. Photo courtesy of Daniel Min. Bottom: Ralph S. Northam spoke at the 400th Anniversary of the First Representative Legislative STEERING COMMITTEE REPORT Assembly Morning Session at Historic Jamestowne. He was flanked by Thomas K. Norment, Jr. and M. Kirkland Cox. Photo courtesy of Chuck Durfor, Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation. Inside front and back cover: The John Smith Map, first published in England in 1612 and the primary map of the Chesapeake region used by colonists for nearly a century, records the geographic features and cultural aspects of the Chesapeake Bay. Image courtesy of the Library of Virginia. BACK COVER PHOTOS Left: Governor George Yeardley (portrayed by Brian Beckley, Jamestown Settlement Fort Supervisor) during the 400th Anniversary Commemorative Ceremony of the First Representative Legislative Assembly, July 30, 2019. Middle: Members of the Wazee Afrikan Dance Troupe at Fort Monroe, August 20, 2016. Right: Stephen R. Adkins, Sr., Chief of the Chickahominy Indian Tribe, during the First English Thanksgiving Commemoration, December 4, 2019. COVER AND BOOK DESIGN Howell Creative Group, Williamsburg, Virginia PRINTED BY Progress Printing, Lynchburg, Virginia 2019 COMMEMORATION, AMERICAN EVOLUTION STEERING COMMITTEE REPORT Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation P.O. Box 1607, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187-1607 (757) 253-4838 (757) 253-5299 Fax (757) 253-5110 TDD historyisfun.org June 1, 2020 To Governor Ralph S. Northam and our colleagues in the Virginia General Assembly: Events in Virginia in 1619 shaped the United States and world we know today in profound and lasting ways. That year’s momentous beginnings—for Democracy, Diversity, and Opportunity—set in motion an American evolution that over the 400-year arc of our history has seen those ideals reframed and renewed in our national pursuit of a “more perfect union.” It is a powerful and challenging story, one that reveals the heights to which the human spirit can soar and the depths to which man’s inhumanity can sink. Most important, it is a story of overcoming and of coming together—a redemptive narrative that could only be written in a land like ours, where the people govern. In bringing that legacy to light—from American democracy’s beginnings at Jamestown in 1619 through four centuries of struggle and sacrifice, service and progress—we illuminate timeless lessons that can inspire and inform a new generation of Virginians and Americans as they take history’s pen in hand and write. An Agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia It is remarkable and ironic that distinct occurrences of such long-term significance coincided in a single calendar year. Each of the events—the first representative legislative assembly, the Accredited by the first African arrival, the first significant immigration of English women, the first official English American Alliance of Museums Thanksgiving observance, the first stirrings of entrepreneurship due to sweeping economic reforms—could have warranted a commemoration on its own. That the events coincided in 1619 M. Kirkland Cox provided the Commonwealth with a distinctive opportunity to call attention to our history and its Chairman very relevant lessons, an opportunity the Virginia General Assembly and supportive governors wisely determined to use to full advantage. Janet D. Howell Vice Chairman In fulfilling the charge to produce a broad-based commemoration of these historic milestones, the Steering Committee and our entire AMERICAN EVOLUTION team committed Sue H. Gerdelman Secretary to some exceedingly ambitious goals: • First, we resolved to give a complete and honest account of the events themselves and Frank B. Atkinson Treasurer all that flowed from them. Some past commemorations here and elsewhere had tended to gloss over difficult history. We sought instead to illuminate it and, in the process, to Christy S. Coleman Executive Director present a diverse set of narratives in which all Virginians and Americans, not just some, could see themselves and gain understanding and inspiration. • Second, we endeavored to raise awareness across the country of the pivotal role Virginia played in the creation of the United States and in the evolution of key facets of American society, especially representative democracy, diversity and inclusion, and entrepreneurial innovation. In this effort, we were seeking to build on the very substantial educational gains and heightened awareness achieved a dozen years earlier by AMERICA’S 400TH ANNIVERSARY commemorating the four-century-long journey since Jamestown’s founding. • Third, we sought not only to highlight Virginia’s historic and contemporary leadership in education, tourism, and economic development but to advance those efforts in real time, producing a significant and measurable return on the Commonwealth’s investment. An Equal Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action Organization educating • interpreting • preserving • commemorating The pages that follow report comprehensively on the remarkable variety of AMERICAN EVOLUTION programs and events, the outstanding team of professionals and volunteers who produced them, the wide-ranging partnerships and generous sponsorships that enabled them, the vitally important and inclusive conversations they occasioned, and the enormously positive messages and outcomes they generated. The Governor and our General Assembly colleagues will especially appreciate the truly statewide scope of the program and the participation of Virginians from every region of the Commonwealth in the Commemoration’s planning and implementation. Some key results detailed in the report deserve special emphasis here. More than 2.7 million individuals of all ages participated in 379 commemorative programs and events that occurred during 2019 and in the three-year run-up to the 2019 observances. Many millions more heard about the Commemoration and its key themes, about Virginia’s historical significance, and about our state’s distinctive tourism destinations through Commemoration-inspired communications that generated more than 28 billion media impressions. The documented economic impacts were equally stunning. Combined Commemoration and visitor spending generated an estimated $197 million in total economic impact for the Commonwealth, accounted for nearly 2,000 jobs, and produced $5 million in state tax revenue and another $3 million in local tax revenue. In short, the Commonwealth of Virginia and our citizens received a very substantial tangible and intangible return on their investment in the multifaceted commemoration known as AMERICAN EVOLUTION. Even so, the biggest impact can never be fully measured, for it is the benefit that inures to a self-governing nation and to each of us when we gain wisdom and understanding from the lessons of an ever more complete and compelling historical narrative. It has been our great privilege to serve alongside so many dedicated Virginians in co-chairing this highly successful Commemoration. We thank you for your support of the program and your participation in its many memorable events. Sincerely, M. Kirkland Cox Chairman, Board of Trustees Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Co-Chair, AMERICAN EVOLUTION Commemoration Thomas K. Norment, Jr. Past Chairman, Board of Trustees Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Co-Chair, AMERICAN EVOLUTION Commemoration Co-Chairs of the 2019 Commemoration, AMERICAN EVOLUTION, Delegate M. Kirkland Cox (left) and Senator Thomas K. Norment, Jr. (right). FOREWARD Virginia history is still unfolding, and every Virginians and Americans, and it did. story matters. AMERICAN EVOLUTION produced many memorable As America’s birthplace, our Commonwealth moments, enduring images, and lasting legacies has a unique role to play in calling attention to that are captured in this report: commemorative our more than 400 years