VA-WP13 Justin Holland

Marker text: JUSTIN HOLLAND

Justin Holland was a 19th-century pioneer African American of the classical guitar, community leader, and abolitionist. Born in Norfolk County, about 1819, he left for Massachusetts in 1833. There he took music lessons and learned to play the guitar. He moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1840s, became a music teacher, and arranged several hundred pieces of music for the guitar. He also played an active role in the movement to secure equal rights for African Americans and attended the first National Negro Convention in Philadelphia in 1830. He died at his son's home in New Orleans on 24 Mar. 1887.

Department of Historic Resources, 2012