Whether assisting escapes through the Underground Railroad, forming banks, publishing a newspaper, or providing recreational facilities, Portsmouth's African Americans created one of the most stable middle-class black communities in America. African Americans in Portsmouth built a strong, insulated community because they were cognizant of the need to look inward. Early 20th-century leaders such as Dr. William Reid, Nancy T. Wheeler, and the Reverend Harvey N. Johnson Sr. were civic models and guiding forces for a community emerging from the ravages of slavery, and enduring the hardships of segregation. Black America: Portsmouth, Virginia captures the world of an ever-changing community and a people who persevered, no matter the odds.
Cassandra Newby-Alexander, a Norfolk native and historian; Mae Breckenridge-Haywood, a Portsmouth native and retired librarian; and the African American Historical Society of Portsmouth, have culled photographs from a variety of collections and coupled them with an informative text to tell this remarkable story.