- They're reinterpreting the history of blacks at Colonial Williamsburg.

And next on our place, our time, we'll bring you up to date.

You'll also meet John Allen's stock, one of Tidewater's most admired artists, and we'll walk through a maze of artful images.

Hello, I'm Vian Webb.

Welcome to our place our time.

One of the things that we know about Colonial Williamsburg in the 1770s is that over 50% of the population were black slaves.

We know about the tremendous contribution that blacks made to the building of the colonial capital and to its economic, social, and cultural life.

We know that general things, but what history has not recorded well are the individual lives of those black slaves.

And so in order to reconstruct that history, archeologists and historians at Colonial Williamsburg are going back, turning over new research and looking again at old sources.

Kim Simon Fink tells us the story.

Look, I found it.

Duck broken wing.

Where's master rock?

- He's in the house as far sleeping this morning about Sonny Horses is coming back.

- Bring the horses over here.

In this - 1960 style introduction to Colonial Williamsburg, black men and women referred to as servants are noticeably omitted from the mainstream experience of this historically preserved outdoor museum.

Despite the fact that 50% of colonial williamsburg's population was black, - There's an institutional bias towards treating things that you're comfortable with.

This is overwhelmingly a white institution comfortable with treating historic preservation of buildings, comfortable with presenting the decorative arts of the 18th century.

- It was 1969 before conversations in the foundation began to focus on, well, let's do something with black history.

It was a decade later before something was actually done, and I guarantee you that we have done more than any other museum has done in the United States, black or white.

When we began, there was no building here focusing on black history.

You couldn't go into, into any one place and learn about black history even though half the population was black.

So we had to begin programs that were abstract in nature program and living history lent itself to it in a way that no other mode of interpretation did.

- I want you to make sure to pick as much of the broccoli as you can, but that which is going to seed is here.

And there are several.

- The Living History director of Kalin Williamsburg's, African American Interpretations Program, Rex Ellis, refers to presented an educational slice of life reenactment of 18th century characters portrayed by trained interpreters who delivered vignettes of black history.

But according to Ellis, the program itself was limiting.

- We had blacks and whites coming up to us walking away before they even heard what we had to say either because just the sight of us was so painful or what we were saying was so painful or what we were representing was so uncomfortable until they didn't even want to stay to hear the end of what we had to say.

So that alerted us at the beginning that these people are seeing us, us blacks who are portraying these slaves in a different light, and we are going to have to regroup and reorganize ourselves in a different manner where we did that.

- A 1986 at T Grant for an archeological excavation of slave quarters on the Carter's Grove site just outside of Colonial Williamsburg, probably played the greatest role in enhancing all other black history programs.

The findings uncovered in the slave quarters have offered authentic evidence to help accurately portray an often untold story that of the black involvement in the building of colonial Williamsburg.

And in early America, - We found a series of 14 rectangular soil stains and these soil stains represented root cellars, which were excavated or dug by the slaves under the floors of their cabins covered with boards to keep them from falling in.

And these root cellars were used for food storage and also for storage of items in the home.

And then it seems that after they finished using them, they were filled with garbage.

- It's a good example of how the documents and the archeology work together.

We've got one reference from a Virginia Planter's diary where he has one of his overseers look for some stolen items in the slave's, holes and boxes as he calls them, - Through documentation and excavation.

Jay Gainor, curator of Mechanical Arts and Patricia Sanford staff archeologists surfaced instrumental accounts and artifacts which pieced together the long unsolved puzzle of 18th century black history.

- This is an example, a hoe that we found in one of the root cellars.

And this is the kind of item that would've been supplied by the planner to his slaves.

- It's a good example of the kind of item for which we have both documentary and archeological evidence.

Planners, account books, list hoes.

We know that they were being supplied to field hands at the same time.

We've got an archeological example that tells us what type of hoe it may have been.

- Handmade earth and wear pots issued pewter spoons, items bartered or bought by themselves.

They have nothing new to say collectively, however they offer historical interpretations.

- What we're doing to a large extent is going back and looking at documents that we've looked at before and looking at them for the very specific purpose of seeing what clues they give us to the kinds of things that that blacks lived with and the kinds of things that they use to, to cope with their lives in the 18th century.

- From such clues, the living history, interpreters are better equipped to present a more varied array of characters in a wider range of lifestyles.

- Williamsburg is atypical to the total black experience that's different than Carter's Grove.

So hopefully you'll see the range that is the black experience.

They laughed, they cried, they were angry, they were frustrated, they were the gamut of the emotions that we think we have today.

- I guess he thinks just because I'm a slave, I can do two things at one time.

You know what I mean?

Sir, your wife tell you to do one thing, then she tell you to do something else.

I forgot.

You don't want to be speaking Anyhow.

I play the character of Billy, one of the 12 slaves that were listed on the inventory of Henry Weatherby.

My character talks a lot about what he hears inside during the dining room being this the capital of Virginia at that particular time, a lot, they're gonna be discussing a lot of laws that are going to be passed down at the capitol here, and he probably would pick up his ears to anything talking about laws pertaining to blacks.

He was talking to the other man saying, I get ill humans when I see three or better of them getting together, particularly if they men.

Then he cut his eyes up in me.

Well, I looked around like I won't listening.

See, they think cause i's a slave eyes dumb.

I go into character and I talk to my audience or the guests that come out from the tavern and then I break outta my first person to explain to them what they have seen.

Billy talks to you about laws, laws that directly affect blacks - Breaking out of character.

Arthur Johnson is a 20th century man is better able to explain his 18th century character.

This approach has allowed interpreters to deal better with their audiences when discussing the often uncomfortable subject of slavery.

Currently in a program which consists of 180 interpreters, there are only 12 staff members in the African American department.

Gerald Roy portrays a stable slave.

- We see ourselves more as educators than entertainers because we are here to try to enlighten people and give them a better understanding of what it was like in the 18th century to be a slave here in Williamsburg.

- As you know, slavery is a touchy subject.

So to relay everything, it's hurt a little.

So then we as educators, we have to know how we put it across where it wouldn't offend the visitors.

Also, - Emily Frazier interprets the story of Nam the Cook at the Benjamin Powell house.

Unlike Arthur Johnson, Frazier must remain in character throughout her presentation, relying on a 20th century host and questions from her visitors to communicate her historical lessons.

Benjamin, it is a challenging task.

You're about to be named.

- Do you eat the same food that the pals eat?

- Our parents, they were from Africa.

They always say, you don't say all you see or tell all you here.

So sometime when I'm cooking I put a little aside because we look at it this way.

We belong to the powers the children belong to, the powers the ham and the chicken we are taking also belong to them.

So if we take one thing that belonged to them, put it into something else that belong to them, they still love us.

- A couple of times I have interpreted and had individuals to just break down and cry.

So I have to be a strong person to be able to, you know, accept what has taken place in front of me.

- I'm right confused because my child is 13 and reach the age very could be sold off at 13.

And I don't really know whether or not Mr.

Paul is going to sell my son off.

Now, I don't really know what to think because with me being the co, I don't like to think Mr.

Paul would want to sell my Charles because I don't think he would want to sell Charles and still have me cooking his food tomorrow.

But still you are right.

I don't really know what he might do.

So I'm right.

Confused.

I'm right confused.

- Today in Colonial Williamsburg there is more to the history of slavery and the black community than Cooks and tavern fetches.

A complete history is being documented as old texts are revisited and archeological findings start new chapters.

- You don't want them to leave there thinking, Ooh, that was just a great show.

We really loved it.

You want them thinking about 200 years ago, there were slaves.

My ancestors probably owned slaves.

How would I have responded if I was here 200 years ago?

You want the people to leave thinking about what they just saw.

- Since we first broadcast this report last year, colonial Williamsburg has expanded its program on blacks in the 18th century.

There are now more one person portrayals and even audience participation programs.

The history of blacks in the 18th century capital is now an integral part of the Colonial Williamsburg experience.

A maze of images greet you as you walk through the exhibit.

Currently at the Portsmouth Courthouse Gallery on display are folding screens of different shapes, sizes, and materials done by 21 East coast artists who don't usually work in this medium.

The hand workshop in Richmond invited the artist to participate, and the result was 21 different responses.

Mike Sinclair visited the exhibit and wandered among the screens, - The leader of America's civil rights movement.

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

The man who prayed for peaceful equality between the races is captured on film by his friend and vigilant companion photojournalist Flip Schulke.

The Virginia Beach Center for the Arts is exhibiting 62 photographs of schulte's work taken during the height of the movement in the 1960s.

The center's curator, Lance Caldwell, says that Schulte's relationship with Dr.

King led him to portray the man as well as the movement.

- Schulke actually got to photograph King in his home with his children as a family man as opposed to just a a, a leader.

- Schulte's work fully documents the civil rights era.

He accompanied Dr.

King during sit-ins, rallies, freedom rides, and marches.

While Caldwell notes that the exhibit doesn't overemphasize violence during the movement, which was so opposed to Dr.

King's thinking, he does describe some of the more powerful images.

- There's an image of a policeman with a, a photograph, I assume, of his child in the, the butt of the gun.

There's ano another image of a man that was beaten soon as he stepped off a bus.

A lot of images of king in a, in a troubled state.

There's one image in particular where President Johnson's in the background and they both look really bothered about what's going on.

- This photograph taken in 1985 is of the mayor of Selma, Alabama, who was also mayor during the Selma marches 20 years before now with his assistant chief of Police, Joseph McGrew.

This type of change is what lives on after King's violent death in 1968.

King remembered will be on exhibit through March 31st.

I'm Holly O'Neill, reporting - Artist is only one of John Allen stock's occupations.

He's also an architect and environmental planner, a world traveler and a sailor.

So you might ask, how does stock find time to fit art into all of that?

Well, the answer is at night, he's an insomniac who averages two or three hours of sleep a night.

So contributing producer Mike Ridge found no difficulty in finding a wakeful John Allen stock at the artist studio in home in Virginia Beach.

- It is said that there comes a time in everyone's life when a choice has to be made to follow a single calling, a career, a life's work.

There are of course, those people to whom this axiom does not apply.

John Allen stock is one of them.

- I was interested in both the anthropology and architecture, but architecture seemed to be my calling.

I didn't have perhaps a, a dedication that says I'm gonna be an architect.

I went about the idea of studying architecture with the idea that it might be a springboard for other things.

- John Stock is now the deputy director for planning for the Naval Facilities Engineering command, a job that takes him all over the globe.

On first glance, it would seem unlikely that the designer of this facility is also the artist who produced this graphite drawing, delicately titled Intrinsic Affections.

But for stock one is the logical and necessary extension of the other.

- One of the things which is I guess natural for all artists is they paint the environment.

They paint landscapes, urban scenes, those, those types of things.

A lot of artists focus on interior things and they may abstract all of that so that you look at a painting, it's maybe an exterior landscape, but in fact it's totally abstract, such as something Picasso might do.

But I think one of the things for me in terms of planning and architectural design is that more and more we have to consider the context of design and the environment.

Not just speaking about the ecological environment, but the environment of a place where people live.

People work and they interact with nature.

They interact with the manmade structures.

There's sort of a cross-fertilization of ideas and approaches to things.

And as you develop and study an area such as a series of paintings in a on one plane, the experience of that journey will often fertilize or give rise to looking at another problem or area that you're pursuing from a different vantage point, a different perspective.

I work in anything that's appropriate to carry out the, the idea or the expression I want, which tend to fall into traditional mediums such as watercolor, acrylics, oils, charcoal, pencil, pastel crayons, just about anything.

I'd use mud if it was appropriate, although it's not a very permanent material, doesn't stick very well to canvas.

- If John Allen stock did decide to use mud as an artistic medium, it is highly probable that he would somehow make it work.

He is no less successful as an artist than he is as an architect designer.

He has developed something of a following with his paintings and watercolors eagerly sought by private patrons and corporate clients alike.

Diane Fletcher of Norfolk's Harbor Gallery explains, - John is not a, an a technician or an illustrator.

He is truly an artist.

He is able to have a, a blank space, a blank piece of paper or canvas and create something from nothing.

It isn't faddish, it isn't high tech or anything that's too contemporary.

It's pleasing.

It's a nice marriage, architecture and art.

- I think there is a a a number of people who have a need to create a driving compelling need.

And whether it manifests itself in architecture, in writing, in art or whatever, that is going to be a major part of their role in their focus.

And whether you get remunerated for it or not is probably irrelevant.

You're gonna do it.

It's nice that people buy paintings and that people pay architects for the things they do, but I think that those people that are in that frame of, of reference and that focus are gonna do it regardless.

- It should come as no surprise that John stock intends to branch out even further.

He has a growing interest in children's literature and stage design among other things, and unbridled optimism in his artistic future.

- If you look at the development of most architects and and artists, you'll see that most of their best work was done after the age of 50.

And so I'm, I'm looking forward to the next 45 years with anticipation I'll, I, I don't want be too locked in because I want to have some surprises for myself - And no doubt for the rest of us as well.

- On the old Banana Pier in downtown Norfolk, work has begun preparing for the construction of NCUs, the $53 million National Maritime Center, which the city is hoping will become a tourist bonanza.

Phases one and one a of the site preparation include dredging and building a bulkhead around the waterfront.

Perimeter money for the work is coming from $13 million.

The city is allocated for overall design and site preparation.

Admiral Jack Parker, executive director of the National Maritime Center Authority said that while the timetable for construction has been delayed a little plans for the center are coming along nicely.

- Two and a half years ago when we started out, we projected an opening in the fall of 92.

We're now looking at the, at the spring of 93.

And I don't consider that to be a, a major burp, if you will, in the, in the, in the project.

- I know that there are several different sources that you're raising money from, local, state, and private sources.

What is the status of the private fund drive?

What was the, what is the goal and how much have you raised?

- Our goal is $10 million in, in private money today we have pledges in excess of $4.3 million.

The campaign is ongoing.

We have set a target of $6 million by the time that we would award the contract for the building construction.

That's projected to be in about the September October timeframe this year - Designed to look like an oceangoing ship.

Nautic is to include a naval history museum and high tech interactive displays of commercial and military maritime subjects.

The largest part of the funding will come from a $27 million bond issue backed by the city.

- These bonds will be sold by the city and backed by the city's faith and credit, and therefore the final decision lies with the city.

But I have every reason to believe that they will be sold on time, in time for us to have the money at the time of construction award.

- So you are projecting the bond issue between now and next October, right?

- Approximately that - Parker said the authority because of the weak economy, has deferred temporarily.

Plans to build next to nautic appear big enough to accommodate Navy ships about the war in the Persian Gulf and its potential impact on the NCUs plans.

Parker, a former Commandant of the Fifth Naval District, said the war might prove to have a positive influence.

- The technology that is being used in, in the Gulf is getting a lot of publicity and Ticus is a center for maritime technology.

And so it, it may tend to elevate the level of public awareness as to the importance of maritime technology.

And in that sense, I think it would be positive and indeed one could could make an argument that it could help our attendance figures.

- Next week on our place, our time, we're going to continue our search with the Virginia Symphony for new music director.

We want to introduce you to Robert Henderson, the conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in Little Rock and the fourth of the six candidates to conduct the Virginia Symphony this season.

We're also going to give you a profile of sculptor Deb Rogers, an artist who have suffered hardship, but who celebrates humor.

And then we'll visit an archeological dig, which is giving us information about how our forebearers lived in the 16 hundreds.

Please join us next week for our place our time.

I'm Vian Webb, partial funding for our place, our Times Made Possible by grants from the Arts Commissions of the cities of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.

From the Virginia Commission for the Arts and from the Arts Commissions of the cities of Newport News, Norfolk Hampton and Williamsburg.