African American communities and businesses in Winchester

African American communities and businesses in Winchester

Communities In 1860, before the Civil War, Winchester’s 48 free blacks lived in fifteen households widely scattered throughout the downtown area. Following Emancipation, newly freed families were pressed to find employment and housing. The majority worked in the service industry in town and farm labor in the county, and began to find housing in segregated communities. The first African American neighborhood developed in the North Highland-East B…