Social Justice on the Eastern Shore
Bayview is an over-300-year-old African American community located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. After the American Civil War, it became a community populated by formerly enslaved people, principally consisting of farms and a small village with shops, restaurants, and its own post office. In the early 20th century, Bayview thrived due to agriculture, by growing white potatoes and establishing the local seafood industry. However, by the late 20th century, Bayview was hit hard when many of the canneries and seafood processing plants closed due to dwindling shellfish populations in the Chesapeake Bay as a result of increased pollution. With the decline of these industries, Bayview itself declined and never achieved modern standards of sanitation or housing. It became an example of hard rural poverty with few prospects for improvement.
Then, in 1998, the community organized the Bayview Citizens for Social Justice and began forming productive partnerships, including the Nature Conservancy, to improve the standard of living for its people. Through a combination of federal, state, and private funds, the community raised $11 million and purchased 160 acres of farmland, including what had been proposed as a site for a State prison. In the first phase, they built 48 one, two, and three-bedroom apartments, 22 single-family homes, a laundry facility, a Community Enrichment Center, and several other facilities.
Alice Coles, founder and president of Bayview Citizens for Social Justice for over 25 years has been a key catalyst in bringing together partners to achieve the community’s dream of equitable housing and employment. In 1998, Vlad Gavrilovic worked with Alice, The Nature Conservancy and architect Maurice Cox on the initial master plan and vision that has been realized and made famous in the ensuing decades. Today, Bayview is a community transformed, with affordable homes that have hot and cold running water, central heating and air conditioning, access to a laundry mat and day-care center and a playground.
Alice Coles and Bayview have been featured on 60 Minutes, NPR, Voice of America, and in a VCU documentary called “This Black Soil.” Alice was commended by the Virginia State legislature in 2006 and was a 2005 winner of the Impact Award, known now as the Inspire Awards.
