The Life and Legacy of Miss Virginia Estelle Randolph

We are thrilled to announce that Henrico County resident, public historian, author, presenter and filmmaker, Elvatrice Belsches, will be visiting the library to discuss her work on Virginia E. Randolph, a Richmond native who pioneered education initiatives for black students throughout Henrico County and across the South for over five decades.

In the program, The Life and Legacy of Miss Virginia Estelle Randolph, Belsches will take the audience on a multimedia journey that amplifies Randolph’s extraordinary contributions in the areas of education, public health and juvenile justice reform. Belsches has studied the life of Virginia Randolph extensively and was the recipient of a grant from Virginia Humanities in 2020, which will allow her to work on the development of the script for the Virginia Randolph documentary project. Her biographical entries for Miss Virginia Randolph appear in both Encyclopedia Virginiaand the African American National Biography (AANB), a collaborative publication of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University and the Oxford University Press. She is also the author of Black America Series: Richmond, Virginia (Arcadia Publishing) and several other biographical entries in the AANB. 

Additionally, she was a recipient of the 2011 Award of Merit by the Henrico Historic Preservation Advisory Committee for her distinguished contributions to historic preservation in Henrico County. Her work includes serving as an in-studio researcher on Steven Spielberg’s motion picture, Lincoln. She lectures locally and nationally on the Black experience in history.

Please join us for this exciting event, which will be hosted at our Fairfield and Glen Allen locations.