The Germantown Historical Society’s statement on the recent deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, and others:

These past few days and weeks have been grief-stricken and heavy in America. In already difficult circumstances, our communities are distraught and heartbroken over these lives taken due to racialized violence. For many directly affected, this violence hits close to home – as it has for a long time.

The Germantown Historical Society has long sought to be a keeper of local history, from the uplifting and inspiring to the tragic and horrific. To that end, we are deeply embedded into the Germantown community and its history, including the experiences of African Americans here.

We have sought to acknowledge the hard truths about our collective past and provide opportunities to learn from it, from presentations on the African American experience, to preserving cemeteries of the enslaved, to collaborating with other local organizations dedicated to Black history initiatives. We strive to make sure these important narratives are included into the understanding of Germantown’s past and are made accessible to the public – as they are too often silenced.

For much of its early history, Germantown was a collection of plantations operated by enslaved Africans. Although a free Black community prospered here in the wake of the civil war, segregation and discrimination were still rife throughout the area. In fact, the Germantown Bank (which is now our headquarters) was one of the few institutions in the area that served African Americans during the 1920s.

The GHS is striving to be more accessible and relevant to Germantown communities by connecting the present with the past. What is happening now at this moment is a part of our history, and we believe that it is important to not only document it but also show support to the communities that we serve.

The GHS stands in solidarity with the Black communities, as well as other historically marginalized communities, who have been historically oppressed by systematic racialized violence in this country. To stay silent on this matter is to negate our work and what we claim to stand for. As an organization, we emphatically declare that Black Lives Matter and that Black History Matters.

We are currently working on providing educational resources on Black history in the area, made accessible through our website that people can follow up with. We hope that these resources will help to contextualize this current moment in history. We must learn from our past and present in order to positively shape the future and combat racism in our society.

In solidarity,

The Board of the Germantown Historical Society