Ann L. Chinn

Board Chair, MPCPMP

PERSONAL

I was born and grew up in Washington, DC, among family and friends with a strong awareness of history. Over the years I became a person who loves stories and the people who generate these narratives. Along the way I also realized that each of us is deeply entwined with a local and national heritage that can be traced through memory as well as knowledge. Textile art, social service, community organizing and historical research are constants in my life. Married to Charlie Cobb (journalist and author), I appreciate language, written and spoken. From my parents and many relatives, I learned the responsibility of honesty, humor and community. Being a member of a diverse and ever-expanding family of three children, five grandchildren, and numerous cousins, I increasingly appreciate the role we all have in telling the story, in valuing who we are and who helped shaped us, and in acknowledging that process.

PROFESSIONAL
MIDDLE PASSAGE CEREMONIES and PORT MARKERS PROJECT, INC (MPCPMP) 2011-2021 Executive Director / Board Chair
-Established the tax-exempt non-profit organization to honor African ancestors and their descendants in the Western Hemisphere
-Assist 55 documented U.S. Middle Passage arrival locations in conducting ancestral memorial services and installing historical markers related to the transatlantic human trade of Africans from the 16th through the 19th century
-Promote the history of the African American experience in the Western Hemisphere through lectures, conference presentations, research, blog posts, and maintenance of the website: www.middlepassageproject.org

COMMUNITY SERVICE
-Member, “Healing Day” Program Planning Committee, Africatown/Mobile, AL, 2019
-Advisor, 400 Years of African American History Commission, National Park Service, “Healing Day” Planning Committee, 2019
-Member, Advisory Board, North Carolina African American Heritage Commission, 2019
-Founding member of the League of Descendants of the Enslaved at Mount Vernon

EDUCATION
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
BA Major: Sociology, Minor: History

Yale College, New Haven, CT
Special Student, American History and Sociology (Independent Study)

The George Washington University, Washington, DC
Masters level coursework in Health Care Planning and Hospital Administration
No degree

April 11, 2022

Intertwined Stories: Rediscovering Families

In Intertwined Stories , we’re taking a deeper dive into the history behind the podcast Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington’s Mount Vernon by bringing you extended versions of some of the interviews with the series' contributors. As a child, Ann Chinn didn’t understand her family’s connection to Mount Vernon, the Washingtons, or the Custis Family. But later in life, she came to learn that she was a descendent of Sall Twine. Twine was a woman assigned to work as a field labor...

Guest: Ann L. Chinn

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Dec. 20, 2021

Episode 8: Legacies

Episode 8: "Legacies" Interpreting slavery at Mount Vernon was not part of the mission of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association when the organization purchased the estate in the mid-nineteenth century. Over time, however, investigating the people enslaved at Mount Vernon and educating the public about their lives and legacies has become central to the Association’s work. In our final episode, we look at how interpreting slavery has become intertwined with interpreting the Washingtons at Mount Ver...

Guests: Jessie MacLeod, Lydia Mattice Brandt, Rebecca Baird, William Norwood Holland, Rohulamin Quander, Ann L. Chinn, Marcus P. Nevius, Ph.D., Jason Boroughs, Scott Casper, Douglas Bradburn, Ph. D., Don Francisco, Steve Hammond

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Dec. 13, 2021

Episode 6: Leaving

Episode 6: “Leaving” Nancy Carter Quander was just a child when George Washington died in December 1799, but his death changed her life forever. Washington’s decision to emancipate his enslaved people in his will had consequences for Mount Vernon’s enslaved community and their descendants that persist into our own time. In this episode, we look at the meaning of freedom for a community intertwined through marriage and kinship, its continued evolution after Martha Washington’s own death in 1802, ...

Guests: Jessie MacLeod, Cassandra Good, Bruce Ragsdale, Mary V. Thompson, William Norwood Holland, Rohulamin Quander, Ann L. Chinn, Lynn Price Robbins, Scott Casper, Steve Hammond

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