An upcoming community event looks to spotlight artwork honoring three historically Black neighborhoods in Arlington, Virginia.
Artist Zane Killgo, a fifth-generation Arlingtonian, will present three oversize digital collages focused on Green Valley, Johnson’s Hill, and Halls’ Hill on Thursday, Sept. 24, at the Langston Boulevard Alliance office.
The free event includes a reception where guests can see the collages and learn more about the neighborhoods. Residents from all three neighborhoods will also take part in a panel discussion, sharing their thoughts about the artwork and how it reflects their communities.
“It’s an opportunity to learn that Arlington’s history is richer and more layered than people often realize, and that Black neighborhoods like Green Valley, Johnson’s Hill and Halls’ Hill helped shape this county and the surrounding area in many ways,” Killgo said.
Killgo, who graduated from Norfolk State University in 2024, said his collages display important buildings in each neighborhood stacked on top of each other in a hierarchy. He said he took each photo used in the collage to tell the story of how each community has existed through time.
“I wanted to give a visual depiction of the cross section between new and old residents during gentrification, and the pros and cons that could come from that and (have) arisen from that,” Killgo said.
The history of all three neighborhoods dates back to after the Civil War. John D. Nauck Jr., a former Confederate soldier, bought 46 acres of land, divided it into lots, and sold them to African American families. One of those lots became Green Valley, formerly known as Nauck. The neighborhood continued to grow until 1902, when changes to Virginia’s constitution restricted the rights of Black residents and brought that expansion to a sudden stop.
Meanwhile, before the Civil War, Johnson’s Hill was part of the Custis-Lee estate where enslaved African Americans worked on the property. According to the Arlington Historical Society, Union forces took over the land in 1861, and after the war, formerly enslaved people acquired parcels of land to build out the community. Now, Johnson’s Hill is known as Arlington View and is considered one of Arlington’s oldest historically Black communities.
Whereas Hall’s Hill became the oldest enclave settled by newly freed slaves in Northern Virginia after the Civil War.
“They were some of the first places where Black people could buy property in Arlington, often right after the Civil War during Reconstruction in the 1850s and 1860s,” Killgo said. “That’s when most of these communities were founded.”
The event aims to raise money to feature Killgo’s collages in the Arlington Art Collection, which hosts more than 70 permanent public art projects.
“I would love for people to come out and see the collages for themselves, see the artwork for themselves, and see how it speaks to them,” Killgo said.
Details about the event are available online.
WTOP’s José Umaña contributed to this report.
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