Resilience and Legacy: Unveiling Alexandria’s Black History
Agenda Alexandria will recognize Black History Month with its February 26 program on the African American individuals who helped shape the City of Alexandria in the face of adversity posed by the institution of slavery and Jim Crow-era discrimination.
The panel discussion will take place on Monday, February 26, 7:00 pm at the Lyceum and will be moderated by Agenda Alexandria Board Member Darrlynn Franklin. She also serves as president of the Alexandria Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). For more information, please visit AgendaAlexandria.org.
Panelists:
- Audrey P. Davis – Director of the African American History division of the Office of Historic Alexandria
- Octavia Stanton Caldwell – Associate Pastor of Outreach, Shiloh Baptist Church
- Dr. Krystyn Moon – Professor at the Department of History and American Studies, University of Mary Washington
Audrey P. Davis is the Director of the African American History division of the Office of Historic Alexandria. Davis joined the City of Alexandria in 1993, beginning as a part-time curator and most recently serving as the Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum.
Throughout her tenure with the City of Alexandria, Davis has been recognized for her exemplary service and commitment to her profession. In 2004, she was appointed by Virginia Governor Mark R. Warner to the Board of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy, and she was reappointed to that Board in 2007 by Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine, serving until her term ended in 2010. In 2008, she received a special merit award, from former Alexandria City Manager James Hartmann, for her contribution to the Freedmen’s Cemetery Memorial Design Competition Committee. In 2009, she was honored with the Salute to Women Awards Vola Lawson Award by the Alexandria Commission on Women as that year’s City of Alexandria employee who had made the greatest impact to improve the role of women and girls in the City. In 2012 she was an essential part of the Office of Historic Alexandria team that achieved accreditation of all departmental facilities, including the Alexandria Black History Museum for the first time, as a “museum system” by the American Alliance of Museums. That designation, achieved by only eight municipal agencies nationwide, confirms the achievement of the highest standards and best practices recognized in the museum field.
Davis was one of five authors of the History Press book, African Americans of Alexandria, Virginia: Beacons of Light in the 20th Century, which chronicles the life of 63 African American men and women whose actions made a difference in the historic fabric of Alexandria, Virginia during the years 1920 through 1965.
Davis has also served as president of the Alexandria Historical Society, is a founding and current member of the Advisory Council of Virginia Africana: The Network of Museum, History and Preservation Professionals, a member of the American Alliance of Museums, a past president of the Virginia Association of Museums; and a member of the Association of African American Museums.
Dr. Krystyn Moon is a Professor at the Department of History and American Studies, University of Mary Washington. She was Director of American Studies and Professor, the Department of History and American Studies, University of Mary Washington, in Summer 2017 to Summer 2019. She has been with the University of Mary Washington since 2010.
Previous work included Assistant Professor, Department of History, Georgia State University, Fall 2002-Spring 2006, Instructor, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, Spring 2002, and Instructor, Maryland Institute College of Art, Fall 2001-Spring 2002.
Honors she has received include Ben Brenman Award for Archaeology (African American Waterfront Heritage Trail Committee), Fall 2019, Alexandria Historical Society Special Award (African American Waterfront Heritage Trail Committee), Summer 2021, Ben Brenman Award for Archaeology (Fort Ward Interpretative Committee), Fall 2019.
Currently, she is working on the project Proximity to Power: Exploring Race and Place in Alexandria, Virginia, 1860-2000.
Octavia Stanton Caldwell currently serves her Lord as the Associate Pastor of Outreach under the Spiritual Leadership of Rev. Dr. Taft Quincey Heatley, Senior Pastor of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia. Before rejoining Shiloh in 2018, she served as the Minister of Evangelism for the Church of the Great Commission in Camp Springs, MD for 20 years. Although she has been in church all her life and was baptized at the age of nine at Shiloh, she did not accept Christ as her Lord and Savior until 1981, went on her first mission trip in 1986, was called into the ministry in 1990, and was ordained as an Evangelist in 2010. She is enthusiastic about growing the Kingdom by going and making disciples in obedience to the Great Commission.
Loving to “contend for the faith” she is a Southern Baptist Convention certified Interfaith Associate specializing in Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Islam, teaching congregations how to minister and witness to those of other faiths. She has also served as a Southern Baptist Certified Chaplain in Disaster Relief through the Maryland Baptist Convention ministering to both responders and victims of human-caused and natural disasters. She and her husband founded Global Mandate, a Missions nonprofit that shows and shares the love of Jesus in practical ways with people in need around the world. Octavia is the Vice-President of the Pan-African Collective serving Africa and the African Diaspora. She also serves on the Home and Global Missions Commission of the Northern Virginia Baptist Association.
She founded ROC Consultants, LLC in 2004 and after the transition of her beloved husband in 2017, renamed the business the Caldwell Group, Inc. The Caldwell Group helps start and grow organizations by proposing solutions and producing results in the areas of Human Resources Management, Leadership, and Organizational Development. As a professional facilitator, she helps large and small groups that need to work, make decisions, and plan together.
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