The African American Heritage Trail and the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School began an exciting collaboration in 2020, when Deirdre Brown’s history classes worked with the trail to clean and restore the Old Marine Cemetery in Oak Bluffs. Brown’s landscaping expertise was very valuable as years of undergrowth were cut back to reveal a clear path to the site at the cemetery honoring the life of Rebecca Martin, whose mother, Nancy Michael, was born into enslavement on Martha’s Vineyard, and whose son, William A. Martin, became the Island’s only African American whaling captain.
The collaboration continued throughout 2021, when the fifth and sixth grade students embarked on a project to research and capture as many names as possible of children who were enslaved on the Vineyard.
In 2023, a project began based on the story of the five women from West Tisbury and Chilmark who traveled to North Carolina during the terrifying times of the civil rights struggle to help register voters, and who were among the founding members of the Vineyard’s chapter of the NAACP. This work embraced the community, and members of the families of the Vineyard Five came into the classroom to discuss with the fifth and sixth graders their recollections of that time of protest.
The collaboration between the Heritage Trail and the Charter School continues with a study of the history of African American property ownership in the town of Oak Bluffs.
