African American Heritage Association of Virginia
100 for
the 400
We have lost too many names.
Too much work went unrecorded.
That stops here.
State of Cultural Heritage in Virginia Symposium · April 24, 2026 · Henrico, Virginia
Four hundred years of names that were never written down.
Work that was never credited. Inheritance that was never acknowledged.
People who carried this heritage forward and were not remembered.
We are writing it now.
What This Is
The work of
remembrance.
100 for the 400 is an act of remembrance. The community nominates the people it will not let be forgotten — the ones who carried African American heritage forward quietly, without a record, without a headline, without a ceremony.
Each year, AAHA! Virginia opens one hundred seats. The community says their name. Their story is documented. Their place in the record is made permanent — while they are still here to know it, and long after.
This is not a prize. It is the community doing what history failed to do: bearing witness, saying thank you, and making sure the next four hundred years know who held the line.
"You have been doing this work in the silence between the headlines. The community sees it. Now the record will say so."
— AAHA! Virginia
What Being Named Means
Your name.
Your story.
In the permanent record.
The community says out loud what it has always known. No committee decides you qualify. The people who have watched you work are the ones who say your name.
Your name enters a permanent vault — housed by AAHA! Virginia and read aloud at the Symposium on April 24. The vault exists so your work is never lost to the record the way too many names before you were lost.
Your story is documented and shared. The next generation will know your name, what you carried, and what you built. The silence in the record ends with you.
Who the Community Is Looking For
Three things every
nominee carries
The community nominates. Every name is held against three standards. All three must be present.
They hold something the community cannot afford to lose — not a title, but the actual work, the practice, the living memory.
They have added something. Not just maintained what was there. They have grown the inheritance.
They are investing in those who come after them. The work does not stop with them. They are already thinking about who holds it next.
What Happens
From nomination
to the vault
The community nominates
Anyone in the community may nominate someone they know. Nominations are not accepted from the nominee. Nominations close before April 24.
April 24, 2026 — Names are read
One hundred names enter the vault the same day and are read aloud at the Symposium in Henrico. Their stories become part of the permanent record of African American heritage in Virginia.
The terms that would have made Reconstruction's promise operational were rejected in Washington. The names of those who kept building anyway were not recorded. One hundred sixty-one years later, AAHA! Virginia begins the work of making sure that does not happen again.
Before You Nominate
What you need
to know
- This initiative is an act of remembrance. The community nominates — the nominee does not apply and cannot nominate themselves.
- There are exactly 100 seats, and when they are filled, nominations close.
- The nominee does not need to be present at the Symposium on April 24 to be entered in the vault.
- The vault is permanent, public, and a lifetime designation. Entry does not expire.
About AAHA! Virginia
Thirty years building
what should not be lost
The African American Heritage Association of Virginia has operated for thirty years as the infrastructure layer for African American heritage in the Commonwealth. AAHA! Virginia coordinates the African American Heritage Tourism Network — more than 375 documented heritage sites across the Hampton–Richmond Corridor.
The work is built on a single premise: Heritage IS Equity. Heritage is not a cultural footnote. It is a scarce resource — as real as land, labor, and capital — and it must be treated as one or it disappears.
100 for the 400 is a founding program of the State of Cultural Heritage in Virginia Symposium. It exists because too many names were already lost. It is built to make sure no more are.
Community Nomination
Someone you know
should not be forgotten.
The community is writing the record now. Say their name before nominations close.
Write Their Name