Motivated. Determined. Visionary.
These are some of the words friends and colleagues used to describe Project 1619 founder Calvin Pearson, who died on Labor Day after a period of illness.
Pearson was a founder and president of Project 1619 Inc., a Hampton-based nonprofit created to correct the narrative about the first people of African descent forced to travel to English North America and in 1619 land at Point Comfort, now known as Fort Monroe.
Pearson was born in 1951 in Newport News and spent much of his youth in Hampton. He studied at multiple colleges, including the Hampton Institute – later renamed to University – and the University of the District of Columbia, before being hired by the city of Hampton. Pearson was the superintendent of Parks and Recreation when he retired in 2005 after 30 years with the city.
Pearson was active in civic issues in Hampton for years. In addition to Project 1619 Inc., he also chaired the National Juneteenth Grassroots Enslavement Legacy Commission and the advisory board for National Freedom Day, Inc.
In 2008, he called a meeting with who would become some of his fellow founding members of Project 1619.
The goal: sharing accurate information about the African American experience, going back as far as possible.
“We set up a plan and program to have [an event] at Gosnold’s Park … but we got rained out completely,” said Bill Wiggins, a retired Hampton University historian and another Project 1619 founding member.
“The sun came out later that afternoon … so Brother Pearson, myself and others said ‘Well, let’s go ahead, let’s share with the audience our thoughts about the African American experience.’”
Those involved didn’t want the work to end there, and Project 1619 Inc. was born from that desire to carry their educational mission forward. While not the sole force behind the project, as president, Pearson became its face over the years.
“Brother Calvin Pearson made it a very important part of his life, as all of us did,” Wiggins said. “He worked very hard on the vineyard, and all of us together brought Project 1619 to where it is right now.”
That first event is where Wiggins and Larry "Kamau" Gibson, a fellow board member, became acquainted. Gibson and Pearson, though, met around the age of 10, playing club ball together.
“I’ve been knowing him from sandbox, from childhood, to the now,” Gibson said. “He was our stat man.”
Gibson and Pearson, with others, worked together on numerous African cultural festivals in Hampton over the years – including Project 1619’s cornerstone African Landing Day commemoration at Fort Monroe.
“We maintained a realization of what this movement is really about, and it’s more than Calvin Pearson, it’s more than membership, it’s more than Hampton, more than Virginia,” Gibson said.
“This is about every faction, especially African and American factions, HBCUs, historical museums – everything that we could gather together to work as a oneness [and] promote our true story.”
Board member Venita Benitez said she first got in touch with Pearson in 2006 after a trip to England. Invited to attend a 400th anniversary commemoration of the First Charter of Virginia, she learned that the 400 year anniversary of the landing of the first African people taken to Virginia was coming up in 2019.
“I was on the internet looking for Hampton, Virginia, Africans – anything,” she said. “And Calvin Pearson, he was on the internet, so I started sending him emails.”
Their collaboration was just one spark that inspired Pearson to invite Benitez, Wiggins, Gibson and others to that first meeting that became the genesis of Project 1619.
But to Benitez, Pearson became a teacher who helped her better understand the history of early African bondage.
“He was a great humanitarian that stepped out on faith and walked his journey through to the end,” she said. “He completed his spiritual mission to bring awareness, not only to Angola, but the American people.”
Pearson was involved in multiple initiatives through Project 1619. He and Wiggins made concerted efforts to see historical markers commemorating things like the end of slavery and the first landing of African people in English North America were accurate. Markers at Fort Monroe were swapped in the mid-2010s and further changes are in the works.
Pearson was also involved in the push to see the pending African Landing Memorial installed at Fort Monroe. The first sculpture is expected to be ready after 2025, and the plans were acknowledged at the recent African Landing Day commemoration.
Pearson was too ill to attend the event, which Wiggins called “bittersweet.”
“I wish he could have been there,” Wiggins said. “But we made sure his name was called out as well.”
Accomplishing these goals wasn’t easy. Project 1619 had to work hard to convince people the importance of acknowledging the site as “ground zero” for what would become American society.
“There was so much resistance,” Benitez said. “We got rejected a lot, turned down by the city, by the state, by even initially Fort Monroe, and look at us now. We have grown together to become a loving and respectful global partnership for our fellow man.”
It took perseverance, courage and some stubbornness to get traction. But that determination is now part of Pearson’s legacy, according to Wiggins.
“It wasn’t a one-person show, but he was instrumental in many areas getting things moving when they were being introduced to the world.”
For others, they see Pearson’s legacy as one of fostering healing. Though not the founding intent of Project 1619, unity and reconciliation became another component of the organization’s work over the years.
“Truth hurts, but it also heals,” Gibson said. “We have to deal with the truth holistically, everybody that’s involved – no matter how heinous your part was, no matter how hurtful the receiving of the madness was.”
In a letter of condolence from Angolan Ambassador Agostinho Van-Dunem to Project 1619, Van-Dunem called Pearson a “visionary and inspirational force whose passion and commitment were instrumental in the accomplishment” of Project 1619’s mission.
“On behalf of the Government and the Embassy of Angola, on my own and of my wife, I present the most heartfelt condolences and feelings of solidarity to the family and to the [Project 1619 Inc.] for the irreparable loss,” Van-Dunem wrote.
The Project has had a long journey to get to this point. And though Pearson is not here to see the final completion of the memorial, Wiggins said no one can deny the efforts he made to see it through.
“My sincere condolences to the world for the loss of Calvin Pearson,” Benitez said. “He loved us all in his own way. He loved us all.”
A homegoing service is planned for Pearson at First Baptist Church of Hampton at 11 a.m. on September 10.
