Christy Coleman steps down as CEO of the American Civil War Museum January 16th, but she’s not closing the book on Virginia’s history.
As the sun sets on her office at the old Tredegar Iron Works, Christy Coleman reflects on the time she’s spent bringing people together over the war that divided a nation. “It has been about enriching our understanding of our collective heritage,” Coleman stresses.
She came to her role in Richmond in 2008 but Coleman’s been telling Virginia’s history since she was a 17-year-old reenactor at Colonial Williamsburg.
Now she’s headed back east. On January 21st Coleman becomes executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, the organization that runs the American Revolution Museum. There, she’ll keep challenging conversations about a shared past.
Some might say Coleman’s changing narratives, but she sees it differently. “This changing the narrative language that we’ve been using of late really is about correcting the narrative.”
Coleman says she’ll keep working to make sure all voices are accounted for, including the indigenous people and enslaved Africans who lived the Revolutionary War.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
