Introducing our 2023 Newsmaker of the Year: Kristen Green

By Nicole van Esselstyn

The New York Times best-selling author and former Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter published her latest book, “The Devil’s Half Acre: The Untold Story of How One Woman Liberated the South’s Most Notorious Slave Jail,” in April 2022.

Since then, the story of Mary Lumpkin, a formerly enslaved woman who was instrumental in educating Blacks after the Civil War, has gotten the additional attention it always deserved. Mary’s school – starting in a notorious slave jail in Richmond – eventually became one of the nation’s first historically Black colleges, now known as Virginia Union University.

The annual Virginia Professional Communicators’ Newsmaker Award is given to a nominee who has made significant news in the past year or throughout their career. The nominee should be either from an under-represented group or someone who has served an under-represented group.

Kristen’s work received news coverage in national and cultural media outlets and is informing a new generation of learners and leaders. Media outlets that covered Kristen’s story included CBS, the Smithsonian magazine, The Washington Post, multiple Richmond and Virginia publications, and more.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Stephen Henderson of the Detroit Free Press, who interviewed Kristen, reported, “Individuals and narratives from the past” such as Mary Lumpkin “offer us guidance toward creating a better America and a better world today.”

For seven years, Kristen searched court papers, old newspapers, census records, marriage documents and death records. She visited the places where Mary lived and the town where she was buried. Mary’s story had largely been forgotten and even some of her descendants didn’t know about her, but now her story is available to all.

Join us in congratulating Kristen at our annual VPC spring meeting and learn more about her and the incredible story of Mary Lumpkin.

Kristen Green is a reporter and the author of the New York Times bestseller “Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County,” which received the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Nonfiction and the People’s Choice Award. She has worked as a journalist for two decades for newspapers including the Boston Globe, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and lives in Richmond, Virginia.