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Scenic Sisters: How Garden Clubs Cultivated Virginia’s Female Political Activists

Scenic Sisters: How Garden Clubs Cultivated Virginia’s Female Political Activists

In the first decades of woman suffrage, Virginia’s garden clubs cultivated more than daffodils; they empowered women to become political activists and community leaders. Clubs registered members to vote and became the bane of advertisers, developers, and the Virginia Department of Transportation by coordinating campaigns to protect the environment, beautify highways, improve neighborhoods, and preserve historic places. Learn more about the political savvy of Virginia’s gardening women in this talk by 2021 Virginia Humanities Fellow Meredith Henne Baker, author of the acclaimed The Richmond Theater Fire, winner of the 2012 Jules and Frances F. Landry Award and the 2012 Phi Alpha Theta Best First Book Award

This virtual event is sponsored by the Richmond Public Law Library. https://rvalibrary.org/services/law-library/ 

For more information about author Meredith Henne Baker, see https://www.theaterfirebook.com/  

Date:
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Time:
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Categories:
Author Visit   Virtual  
Registration has closed.

Event Organizer

Profile photo of Meldon Jenkins-Jones
Meldon Jenkins-Jones

Meldon Jenkins-Jones is the Richmond Public Library / Community Services Manager at Hull Street Branch Library. 

Meldon also chairs the Get Lit Advisory Committee which supports the Richmond Public Library Get Lit Reading Initiatives including the Black Male Emergent Readers (BMER) program and the Lit Chicks Read book clubs.

Meldon is a graduate of the Leadership Metro Richmond Class of 2022. She was the first recipient of the Virginia Library Association (VLA) Librarians of Color Forum Award in 2021 and is an active member of VLA. She presented “Libraries Bringing Community Together” at the 2023 VLA Annual Conference.

In 2011, Meldon received her Master of Library and Information Studies from Florida State University. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Rutgers University School of Law—Newark and practiced law in New Jersey until her retirement in 2003. Meldon received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she studied African American Studies and Russian Civilization.

A Metro Richmond resident, Meldon is the mother of two adult children and enjoys spending time with her grandchildren.

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