February 6, 2025
In February, Bike 76 VA will recognize Black History Month with a series of posts exploring themes along Route 76 related to the experience of African Americans along Route 76 and across the centuries. Booker T. Washington, one of the leading African American public figures of the early twentieth century, has several connections to locations along this route. Washington’s birthplace, now a National Monument, is in the community of Hardy, located about twenty miles southeast of where Route 76 follows the western slopes of the Blue Ridge. As a young man, Washington attended Hampton Institute, located just under twenty miles from Yorktown, the eastern starting point for Route 76.
While these sites are well known, perhaps the most direct connection between Washington and Route 76 occurred in June 1909 when Washington delivered a speech hosted by the Christiansburg Institute. As discussed in episode 21 of the podcast, Washington’s visit to Christiansburg began with his arrival at the Cambria passenger train station, constructed just three years earlier, in 1906. Washington was greeted by a delegation of community leaders, both white and African American, and then he spoke to an audience of thousands, again including whites and African Americans. Washington’s speech, which was widely reported in Virginia newspapers, communicated his key message that practical education and productive work were essential to the future well being of the African American population. This message, which was popular among the majority white population in the south, was and is controversial among African American leaders, who criticized Washington for accepting the second-class position of the population, especially in southern states where voter suppression, racial violence, and economic oppression were maintaining a system of structural racism. A critical reflection on the contemporary meaning and historical legacies of this ideology has resonance with the present, where these issues continue to be debated.
Washington’s visit more than a century ago is connected to the present and the future in important ways. Cambria station is scheduled to resume passenger rail service in the next few years as Amtrak extends its route from the current stopping point, in Roanoke, further into Southwest Virginia. The existing building on Route 76, Cambria Depot, was built in the 1860s and served as a freight depot until the 1960s. The passenger station, which was built in 1906 and provided passenger service until the 1970s, is scheduled for renovation to host passengers in the next several years. In some future year, as railway passengers wait at the station, they can see where Route 76 crosses the railroad a few hundred yards down the track. At that time, passengers will be able to disembark on a station closely connected to a key figure in African American history.
Recognizing the historical resonance of these sites and the connections to Black History Month provide cyclists, residents, and other visitors with opportunities to think about the underlying meaning of history along Route 76.
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