RICHMOND, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- A health care pioneer and civil rights activist has been recognized with a state historic marker in Buckingham County. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources announced seven new historical markers on Thursday. According to a release, these markets highlight various topics in the Commonwealth’s history, such as changes that occurred after the Civil War and their impact on Black Virginians, the founding and growth of a Korean-American community after World War II, and two leaders who legacies impacted the state’s commercial and health care industries. The new marker in Buckingham County shares the story of Beulah M. Wiley, a Black health care pioneer who graduated from the Cumberland Training School in 1941 and led a campaign to establish the Central Virginia Community Health Center, which opened in 1970. The release says this Buckingham County location was the first community health facility in Virginia that was funded by the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty campaign. The center provided care to underserved families in the counties of Buckingham, Cumberland and Fluvanna, and later expanded into a broad network that serves tens of thousands of patients annually. The other markers highlight Mahone’s Tavern in Southampton County, Riverhill Baptist Church in Grayson County, the Readjuster Party and associated events in Danville, a dwelling that was once part of the Colored Rosemont neighborhood in Alexandria, Annandale’s Korean community in Fairfax County, and businessman Arthur Taubman in Roanoke.
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