The Virginia Informer

Last Updated:4/21/09 Section: News Briefs

William and Mary students found documents from businesses owned by the Independent Order of St. Luke, a society that sought to improve the lives of African Americans during the segregation era. The students were exploring the St. Luke building which housed the organization and is currently owned by the Stallings family, who permitted the investigation. The building's attic had never been thoroughly investigated. The students were involved through the Sharpe Community Scholars Program, which has used trips to the building in its freshman seminar before. Among the documents found were four copies of the St. Luke Herald from the 1930's, life insurance payout cards, letters from Maggie L. Walker to the organization, and assorted business documents from the period. The copies of the Herald, the newspaper of the Independent Order, doubled the number of currently existing known copies. Thirty-one boxes of documents were found in the attic, and are currently undergoing preservation work at the Swem Special Collections Resource Center. After conservation and research work are complete, the documents will be donated to the National Park Service, which operates the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site.

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