Peninsula native and renowned historian Calvin Pearson, who friends describe as a huge force in educating Hampton Roads on the history of enslaved Africans, died last week at 73.
Pearson is the founder and president of Project 1619, a nonprofit that has played a crucial role in correcting the narrative about the arrival of enslaved Africans in English-speaking North America. The organization notes the first enslaved Africans, who were kidnapped from Angola, first landed at Point Comfort, today’s Fort Monroe in Hampton, not in Jamestown.
“Calvin’s passing is a monumental loss,” said Melinda Steele, Project 1619’s vice president. She said “correcting the narrative” of the first Africans in America was a passion of his.
“We’re going to miss him dearly,” Steele said. “He was such a pioneer.”
Pearson was born in Newport News and grew up in Hampton.
Hampton School Board member Ann Stephens Cherry recalled Pearson’s longstanding commitment to preserving Black history. Friends since the 1960s, Cherry remembered when Phenix High School — a school for Black students during segregation — was renamed Pembroke High School in 1968 and the school staff started throwing trophies and other Phenix memorabilia into the trash. She said Pearson went “dumpster diving” to retrieve as many trophies and awards as possible to preserve the school’s history.