Date Awarded

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Department

Anthropology

Advisor

Andrea Wright

Committee Member

William Fisher

Committee Member

Sergio Palencia Frener

Committee Member

Brad Weiss

Abstract

Historically steeped in colonial relations and anti-Black racism, Black communities have experienced marginalization and structural violence at the hands of corporations and the state. My research seeks to uncover how such ongoing processes are understood in order to collectivize and make possible action that translates these ties into collective protest. This thesis centers on the small, historic Black community of Brown Grove, located just north of Richmond, Virginia, whose members lost their battle to stop the construction of a large Wegmans distribution center in 2022. This work attempts to better understand how, despite this loss, their grassroots activist movement was able to grow to a national scale. I draw on interviews and social media content to describe the way that activists sought to bridge existing generational divides and different family histories and memories. To understand how rhetorical appeals were employed depending on the audience, I observed government hearings, community meetings, and virtual messages. Using both online and in-person ethnography, I explore the ways that Brown Grove community members and their supporters connected to each other. I find that the work of a younger generation of activists, who used social media and focused on shared memory and community preservation, was critical for building solidarities. Ultimately, I argue that understandings of landscape, home places, kinship and family, and shared history are critical components in Brown Grove’s mobilization against ongoing threats of industrial development.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-rda6-te45

Rights

© The Author

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