Enduring Families Project

08/18/2026

We are very excited to be performing at the Onalaska Public Library at 10am TOMORROW, Wednesday the 19th! Please join us!

This week:
📅Wed, Aug 19 | Onalaska Library | 10 a.m.:
Free Senior Moments program featuring Denise Christy of Enduring Families Project
📅Thurs, Aug 20 | Holmen Library | 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. and 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Need help using Library digital resources or other common software applications? Drop in for free assistance from Jeremy, Public Services Librarian.

03/03/2026

A great evening for The Enduring Families Project at The Black Excellence Awards Event!

09/28/2025

The Juneteenth Court at the Mapleleaf Parade!

08/15/2025

A wonderful August Ball was held at the Capella Arts Center last weekend. The community's 3rd, to honor the August Ball held in La Crosse in the late 19th Century. Reenactors ( portraying George Edwin Taylor and Lilian Davenport) told its story. The traditions of cotillion mixed with rich local history continues!

08/05/2025

Saturday is approaching fast get your dress grab a tux and celebrate this annual tradition!
Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite: La Crosse Annual August Ball Celebration 2025!

06/22/2025

Great showing at the Juneteenth Celebration at Riverside Park on Saturday!

03/11/2025

Discover the history of African Americans in the Driftless region through the Enduring Families Project at the Holmen Library on Mar. 12.

02/25/2025

Great times at the Black Excellence Awards Dinner!

02/06/2025

Blanche Wilkins was born in La Crosse on December 1, 1876. She became deaf at an early age and enrolled in the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf when she was 8 years old. In 1893, she became the first African American woman to graduate from the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf, graduating at the top of her class.

In 1895, she became the first Black deaf woman teacher at the North Carolina School for the Colored Deaf and Blind. According to a North Carolina newspaper from 1897, she received a yearly salary of $250. She retired from her role in 1898.

In 1926, a prominent deaf magazine, "The Silent Worker," described her as "the most accomplished deaf lady of her race in America."

02/05/2025

Zachariah Henry Moss, the son of Zachariah Lewis and Mary (Hunter) Moss, was born in La Crosse in 1865. As a young man, he joined Moss and Son Barber Shop with his father at 610 North 3rd Street. He learned the barber trade and inherited his father's talent in boxing and entertaining the clientele. He and his father were well-known for their ability to tell a good story, their sense of fairness, and for keeping a clean shop. They were also recognized for their patience, especially when teaching the trade and boxing to other young men in the neighborhood.

La Crosse's Black Barbers from the gallery at the La Crosse Area Heritage Center.
Research: Enduring Families Project
Photo: Zachariah Henry Moss, courtesy of the Moss Family