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123-553: Marks was born in Mount Vernon, New York . A graduate of McBurney School in New York, NY, and Colgate University and Columbia University , Marks later studied in Paris. He earned a Bronze Star and four Battle Stars as an Army Captain in the 26th Special Service Company during World War II . Marks had three children: Michael, Laura (d.2008) and David (d.2009). Marks, who was Jewish ,

246-598: A National Historic Site . Mount Vernon sites included on the National Register of Historic Places include: Mount Vernon is at 40°54′51″N 73°49′50″W  /  40.914060°N 73.830507°W  / 40.914060; -73.830507 (40.914060, −73.830507). It is the third-largest and the most densely populated city in Westchester County. According to the United States Census Bureau ,

369-481: A charter for a new colony to the Virginia Company of London . The group financed an expedition under Christopher Newport that established a settlement named Jamestown in 1607. Though more settlers soon joined, many were ill-prepared for the dangers of the new settlement. As the colony's president, John Smith secured food for the colonists from nearby tribes, but after he left in 1609, this trade stopped and

492-639: A group of Spanish Jesuits , explored the Chesapeake Bay during the 16th century. To help counter Spain's colonies in the Caribbean , Queen Elizabeth I of England supported Walter Raleigh 's 1584 expedition to the Atlantic coast of North America . The name "Virginia" was used by Captain Arthur Barlowe in the expedition's report, and may have been suggested by Raleigh or Elizabeth (perhaps noting her status as

615-587: A racially segregated society , and in 1902 rewrote the state constitution to include a poll tax and other voter registration measures that effectively disenfranchised most African Americans and many poor whites. New economic forces meanwhile industrialized the Commonwealth. Virginian James Albert Bonsack invented the tobacco cigarette rolling machine in 1880 leading to new large-scale production centered around Richmond. Railroad magnate Collis Potter Huntington founded Newport News Shipbuilding in 1886, which

738-425: A raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia , in an attempt to start a slave revolt across the southern states. The polarized national response to his raid, capture, trial, and execution that December marked a tipping point for many who believed slavery would need to be ended by force. Abraham Lincoln 's 1860 election further convinced many southern supporters of slavery that his opposition to its expansion would ultimately mean

861-402: A series of ambush-style killings between colonists and natives under Chief Powhatan and his brother began, resulting in mass starvation in the colony that winter. By the end of the colony's first fourteen years, over eighty percent of the roughly eight thousand settlers transported there had died. Demand for exported tobacco , however, fueled the need for more workers. Starting in 1618,

984-697: A bloody Confederate victory. Union General George B. McClellan organized the Army of the Potomac , which landed on the Virginia Peninsula in March 1862 and reached the outskirts of Richmond that June. With Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston wounded in fighting outside the city, command of his Army of Northern Virginia fell to Robert E. Lee . Over the next month, Lee drove the Union army back , and starting that September led

1107-677: A century following the Reconstruction era , both major political parties have been competitive in Virginia since the repeal of Jim Crow laws in the 1970s. Virginia's state legislature is the Virginia General Assembly , which was established in July 1619, making it the oldest current law-making body in North America . Unlike other states, cities and counties in Virginia function as equals, but

1230-439: A century, at a magnitude of 5.8, struck central Virginia on August 23, 2011 . 35   million years ago, a bolide impacted what is now eastern Virginia. The resulting Chesapeake Bay impact crater may explain what earthquakes and subsidence the region does experience. A meteor impact is also theorized as the source of Lake Drummond , the largest of the two natural lakes in the state . The Commonwealth's carbonate rock

1353-460: A commercial corridor which attracts residents from Mount Vernon, nearby communities in Westchester County and the Bronx a well as other locales. Most of the commercial development in this corridor has occurred since the 1980s. The area is still undergoing revitalization to encourage economic development within this 400-acre (1.6 km ) of land along and around the boulevard. Mount Vernon's North Side

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1476-503: A disagreement as to which entity would pay for the audit of the Urban Renewal Agency (URA), one of the city's agencies, and which auditing firm would perform the audit. Further clouding the city's financial condition is the prospect that it might have a repayment obligation to HUD in connection with grants previously awarded to the city On July 9, 2019, mayor Richard Thomas pleaded guilty to stealing campaign funds and lying to

1599-441: A female householder with no husband present. 30.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 3.27. In the city, the population was spread out, with 25.3% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 31.1% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age

1722-531: A governor who ignored the assembly and sent him back to England against his will. William Berkeley was named governor in 1642, just as the turmoil of the English Civil War and Interregnum permitted the colony greater autonomy. As a supporter of the king, Berkeley welcomed other Cavaliers who fled to Virginia. He surrendered to Parliamentarians in 1652, but after the 1660 Restoration made him governor again, he blocked assembly elections and exacerbated

1845-527: A home building cooperative organized to build homes for "tradesmen, employees, and other persons of small means". Mount Vernon takes its name from George Washington 's Mount Vernon plantation in Virginia , much as neighboring Wakefield (in the Bronx ) was named for the Virginia plantation where Washington was born. In 1894, the voters of Mount Vernon participated in a referendum on whether to consolidate into

1968-608: A major urban business and shopping center in Tysons , Virginia's largest office market. Neighboring Prince William County , with over 450,000 residents, is Virginia's second-most populous county and home to Marine Corps Base Quantico , the FBI Academy , and Manassas National Battlefield Park . Arlington County is the smallest self-governing county in the U.S. by land area, and local politicians have proposed reorganizing it as an independent city due to its high density. Loudoun County

2091-437: A national park, but is protected by both state and federal legislation and the inter-state Chesapeake Bay Program . Virginia is divided into 95   counties and 38   independent cities , which the U.S. Census Bureau describes as county-equivalents . This general method of treating cities and counties on par with each other is unique to Virginia and stretches back to the influence of Williamsburg and Norfolk in

2214-496: A new " City of Greater New York ". The cities of Brooklyn (coterminous with Kings County ) and Long Island City , the western towns and villages of Queens County , and all of Richmond County (present day Staten Island) all voted to join with the existing city (present day Manhattan and The Bronx ). However, the returns were so negative in Mount Vernon and the adjacent city of Yonkers that those two areas were not included in

2337-600: A new " bedroom community " because of rising crime in New York City (a " white flight " factor contributed as well). As a result, Mount Vernon became divided in two by the New Haven Line railroad tracks of the Metro-North Railroad : North Side and South Side. The population south of the tracks became predominantly African-American, while that north of the tracks was largely white. At the height of this segregation in

2460-624: A referendum and went into effect in 1971. In 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first African American elected as governor in the United States, and in 1992, Bobby Scott became the first Black congressman from Virginia since 1888. The expansion of federal government offices into Northern Virginia's suburbs during the Cold War boosted the region's population and economy. The Central Intelligence Agency outgrew their offices in Foggy Bottom during

2583-636: A spray deck and water playground, against the backdrop of an English Tudor style bathhouse. The park also has areas for picnicking and fishing. Scenes from multiple TV shows have been shot in Mount Vernon, such as: Virginia Virginia , officially the Commonwealth of Virginia , is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and

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2706-909: A strategy called " massive resistance ", and the General Assembly passed a package of laws in 1956 that cut off funding to local schools that desegregated , causing some to close. Courts ruled the strategy unconstitutional, and on February 2, 1959, Black students integrated schools in Arlington and Norfolk , where they were known as the Norfolk 17 . County leaders in Prince Edward, however, instead shut their school system in June 1959. The Supreme Court ordered them to reopen and integrate their public schools , which finally happened in September 1964. Federal passage of

2829-602: A strong effect on eastern and southeastern coastal areas, making the climate there warmer but also more constant. Most of Virginia's recorded extremes in temperature and precipitation have occurred in the Blue Ridge Mountains and areas west. Virginia receives an average of 43.47 inches (110 cm) of precipitation annually, with the Shenandoah Valley being the state's driest region. Virginia has around 35–45 days with thunderstorms annually, and storms are common in

2952-442: A transition from a city of homes and small businesses to a city of regional commerce. Between 2000 and 2006, Mount Vernon's economy grew 20.5%, making it one of the fastest-growing cities in the New York metropolitan area. In January 2019, Moody withdrew its credit rating for Mount Vernon because of the city's failure to provide audited financial statements. The failure to prepare and deliver audited financial statements stemmed from

3075-474: Is " Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer ", which was based on a poem of the same name , written by Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May , Rudolph's creator. A television film based on the story and song first aired in 1964, with Marks composing the score. In addition to his songwriting, he founded St. Nicholas Music in 1949, and served as director of ASCAP from 1957 to 1961. In 1981, he was inducted into

3198-602: Is called the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, named after the river of the same name that flows through it. The Cumberland Plateau and Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, south of the Allegheny Plateau . In this region, rivers flow northwest into the Ohio River basin. The Virginia Seismic Zone has not had a history of regular earthquake activity. Earthquakes are rarely above 4.5 in magnitude . The Commonwealth's largest earthquake in at least

3321-480: Is filled with more than 4,000 limestone caves , ten of which are open for tourism, including the popular Luray Caverns and Skyline Caverns . Virginia's iconic Natural Bridge is the remaining roof of a collapsed limestone cave. Coal mining takes place in the three mountainous regions. More than 72   million tons of other non-fuel resources, such as slate , kyanite , sand, or gravel, were mined in Virginia in 2020 . The largest known deposits of uranium in

3444-565: Is on the city's south side, which includes City Hall, Mount Vernon's main post office, Mount Vernon Public Library, office buildings, and other municipal establishments. The Mount Vernon area was first settled in 1664 by families from Connecticut as part of the Town of Eastchester . Mount Vernon became a village in 1853, and a city in 1892. Early development was driven by the New York Industrial Home Association No. 1,

3567-421: Is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in Westchester County. The northern part of the city consists of five neighborhoods: Chester Heights, Estate Manor/Aubyn Estates, Fleetwood, Huntswood, and Oakwood Heights. In Fleetwood, many large co-op buildings line the center of town, which is bisected by Gramatan Avenue. Mount Vernon's South Side, which abuts The Bronx , resembles New York City and includes

3690-540: Is the fastest-growing county in the state. In western Virginia, Roanoke city and Montgomery County , part of the Blacksburg–Christiansburg metropolitan area , both have surpassed a population of 100,000 since 2018. On the western edge of the Tidewater region is Virginia's capital, Richmond , which has a population of around 230,000 in its city proper and over 1.3   million in its metropolitan area. On

3813-426: The 2010 United States Census , there were 67,292 people living in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 61.3% Black, 18.5% White, 0.3% Native American, 1.8% Asian, <0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.4% from some other race and 2.5% from two or more races. 14.3% were Hispanic or Latino of any race. As of the 2000 census , 68,381 people, 27,048 households, and 18,432 families resided in the city. The population density

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3936-609: The Appalachian Mountains . The state's capital is Richmond and its most populous city is Virginia Beach . Its most populous subdivision is Fairfax County , part of Northern Virginia , where slightly over a third of Virginia's population of 8.7   million live. Eastern Virginia is part of the Atlantic Plain , and the Middle Peninsula forms the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay . Central Virginia lies predominantly in

4059-619: The Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge , which marks the beginning of the Outer Banks . State agencies control about one-third of protected land in the state, and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation manages over 75,900 acres (307.2 km ) in forty Virginia state parks and 59,222 acres (239.7 km ) in 65 Natural Area Preserves , plus three undeveloped parks. Breaks Interstate Park crosses

4182-676: The Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965), and their later enforcement by the Justice Department , helped end racial segregation in Virginia and overturn Jim Crow laws . In 1967, the Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on interracial marriage with Loving v. Virginia . In 1968, Governor Mills Godwin called a commission to rewrite the state constitution. The new constitution, which banned discrimination and removed articles that now violated federal law, passed in

4305-555: The Committee of Nine . During the post-war Reconstruction era , African Americans were able to unite in communities, particularly around Richmond , Danville , and the Tidewater region , and take a greater role in Virginia society; many achieved some land ownership during the 1870s. Virginia adopted a constitution in 1868 which guaranteed political, civil, and voting rights , and provided for free public schools. However, with many railroad lines and other infrastructure destroyed during

4428-822: The Korean War , and moved to Langley in 1961, in part due to a decision by the National Security Council that the agency relocate outside the District of Columbia. The Pentagon , built in Arlington during World War II as the headquarters of the Department of Defense, was struck by a hijacked plane in the September 11, 2001 attacks . Mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and in Virginia Beach in 2019 led to passage of gun control measures in 2020. Racial injustice and

4551-599: The Piedmont , the foothill region of the Blue Ridge Mountains , which cross the western and southwestern parts of the state. The fertile Shenandoah Valley fosters the state's most productive agricultural counties, while the economy in Northern Virginia is driven by technology companies and U.S. federal government agencies. Hampton Roads is also the site of the region's main seaport and Naval Station Norfolk ,

4674-558: The Songwriters Hall of Fame . Marks appeared as an imposter on the December 11, 1961, episode of the game show To Tell The Truth . Impersonating the owner of a herd of reindeer, he received two of the four votes. After the true contestant was revealed, Marks identified himself as the composer of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". ** Burl Ives released "A Holly Jolly Christmas" and "Silver and Gold," two songs he sang as his character Sam

4797-607: The Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville . The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the Commonwealth, the tallest being Mount Rogers at 5,729 feet (1,746 m). The Ridge-and-Valley region is west of the mountains, carbonate rock based, and includes the Massanutten Mountain ridge and the Great Appalachian Valley , which

4920-536: The State Board of Elections . Thomas was ordered to resign from office by September 30, 2019. The city council then appointed council president Andre Wallace as acting mayor. Thomas refused to resign from his post. Wallace then appointed Shawn Harris as new police commissioner. After arriving for work, Thomas ordered the Mount Vernon Police to arrest Harris for trespassing. Harris was released after an order from

5043-701: The Torpedo Factory in Alexandria had over 5,050. High-school student Barbara Rose Johns started a strike in 1951 at her underfunded and segregated school in Prince Edward County . The protests led Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill to file a lawsuit against the county . Their case joined Brown v. Board of Education at the Supreme Court, which rejected the doctrine of " separate but equal " in 1954. The segregationist establishment, led by Senator Harry F. Byrd and his Byrd Organization , reacted with

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5166-935: The Tutelo , who spoke Siouan , to the west. In response to threats from these other groups to their trade network, thirty or so Virginia Algonquian -speaking tribes consolidated during the 1570s under Wahunsenacawh, known in English as Chief Powhatan . Powhatan controlled more than 150 settlements that had a total population of around 15,000 in 1607. Three-fourths of the native population in Virginia, however, died from smallpox and other Old World diseases during that century, disrupting their oral traditions and complicating research into earlier periods. Additionally, many primary sources, including those that mention Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas , were created by Europeans, who may have held biases or misunderstood native social structures and customs. Several European expeditions, including

5289-552: The Virginia big-eared bat , the state mammal . The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial native to the United States and Canada, and the native Appalachian cottontail was recognized in 1992 as a distinct species of rabbit, one of three found in the state. Whales, dolphins, and porpoises have been recorded in Virginia's coastal waters, with bottlenose dolphins being the most frequent aquatic mammals . Virginia's bird fauna comprises 422 counted species, of which 359 are regularly occurring and 214 have bred in Virginia, while

5412-550: The breeding of slaves , often through rape, a profitable business. Slaves in the Richmond area were also forced into industrial jobs, including mining and shipbuilding. The failed slave uprisings of Gabriel Prosser in 1800, George Boxley in 1815, and Nat Turner in 1831, however, marked the growing resistance to slavery. Afraid of further uprisings, Virginia's government in the 1830s encouraged free Blacks to migrate to Liberia . On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown led

5535-431: The class divide by disenfranchising and restricting the movement of indentured servants, who made up around eighty percent of the workforce. On the colony's frontier, tribes like the Tutelo and Doeg were being squeezed by Seneca raiders from the north, leading to more confrontations with colonists. In 1676, several hundred working-class followers of Nathaniel Bacon , upset by Berkeley's refusal to retaliate against

5658-601: The headright system tried to solve this by granting colonists farmland for their help attracting indentured servants . Enslaved Africans were first sold in Virginia in 1619. Though other Africans arrived as indentured servants and could be freed after four to seven years, the basis for lifelong slavery was developed in legal cases like those of John Punch in 1640 and John Casor in 1655. Laws passed in Jamestown defined slavery as race-based in 1661, as inherited maternally in 1662, and as enforceable by death in 1669. From

5781-426: The poverty line . 12.7% of the population was 65 or older. Mount Vernon's three major employers are the Mount Vernon city school district with (1,021 employees), Michael Anthony Jewelers (712 employees), and Mount Vernon Hospital (700 employees). Mount Vernon has a large commercial sector, with industries such as electronics , engineering , high tech , historical metal restoration, and manufacturing mainly in

5904-686: The siege of Yorktown . His surrender on October 19, 1781, led to peace negotiations in Paris and secured the independence of the colonies. Virginians were instrumental in writing the United States Constitution : James Madison drafted the Virginia Plan in 1787 and the Bill of Rights in 1789. Virginia ratified the Constitution on June 25, 1788. The three-fifths compromise ensured that Virginia, with its large number of slaves, initially had

6027-542: The state fish . Downhill in the Piedmont, stripeback darter and Roanoke bass become common, as do swampfish , bluespotted sunfish , and pirate perch in the Tidewater . The Chesapeake Bay hosts clams, oysters, and 350 species of saltwater and estuarine fish , including the bay's most abundant finfish, the Bay anchovy , as well as the invasive blue catfish . An estimated 317 million Chesapeake blue crabs live in

6150-545: The "Virgin Queen" or that they viewed the land as being untouched) or related to an Algonquin phrase, Wingandacoa or Windgancon , or leader's name, Wingina , as heard by the expedition. The name initially applied to the entire coastal region from South Carolina in the south to Maine in the north, along with the island of Bermuda . Raleigh's colony failed, but the potential financial and strategic gains still captivated many English policymakers. In 1606, King James I issued

6273-441: The 1930s to over one million by the 2010s. Native carnivorans include black bears , who have a population of around five to six thousand in the state, as well as bobcats , coyotes , both gray and red foxes , raccoons , weasels and skunks . Rodents include groundhogs , nutria , beavers , both gray squirrels and fox squirrels , chipmunks, and Allegheny woodrats , while the seventeen bat species include brown bats and

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6396-473: The 1970s, August Petrillo was mayor. When he died, Thomas E. Sharpe was elected mayor. Upon Sharpe's death in 1984, Carmella Iaboni took office as acting mayor until Ronald Blackwood was elected; Blackwood was the first Afro-Caribbean mayor of the city (as well as of any city in New York State). In 1996, Ernest D. Davis was elected the mayor of Mount Vernon; he served until 2007. Clinton I. Young, Jr. became

6519-416: The 2022–2023 winter season. Climate change in Virginia is leading to higher temperatures year-round as well as more heavy rain and flooding events. Urban heat islands can be found in many Virginia cities and suburbs, particularly in neighborhoods linked to historic redlining . The air in Virginia has statistically improved since 1998. The closure and conversion of coal power plants in Virginia and

6642-540: The Appalachian Mountains can lead to significant snowfalls across the state, such as the January 2016 blizzard , which created the state's highest recorded one-day snowfall of 36.6 inches (93 cm) near Bluemont . On average, cities in Virginia can receive between 5.8–12.3 inches (15–31 cm) of snow annually, but recent winters have seen below-average snowfalls, and much of Virginia had no measurable snow during

6765-828: The Black population was reduced by the Great Migration to northern industrial cities in the first half of the 20th century, since 1965 there has been a reverse migration of Blacks returning south . The Commonwealth has the highest number of Black-white interracial marriages in the US , and 8.2% of Virginians describe themselves as multiracial . More recent immigration since the late 20th century has resulted in new communities of Hispanics and Asians. As of 2020 , 10.5% of Virginia's total population describe themselves as Hispanic or Latino , and 8.8% as Asian . The state's Hispanic population rose by 92% from 2000 to 2010, with two-thirds of Hispanics in

6888-399: The Census Bureau recognizes several hundred unincorporated communities . Over three million people, 35% of Virginians, live in the twenty jurisdictions collectively defined as Northern Virginia , part of the larger Washington metropolitan area and the Northeast megalopolis . Fairfax County , with more than 1.1   million residents, is Virginia's most populous jurisdiction, and has

7011-469: The Civil War, the Commonwealth was deeply in debt, and in the late 1870s redirected money from public schools to pay bondholders. The Readjuster Party formed in 1877 and won legislative power in 1879 by uniting Black and white Virginians behind a shared opposition to debt payments and the perceived plantation elites . The Readjusters focused on building up schools, like Virginia Tech and Virginia State , and successfully forced West Virginia to share in

7134-504: The Gramatan Avenue and Fourth Avenue shopping district (known as "The Avenue" by locals ) and the Petrillo Plaza transit hub, and houses the city's central government. Downtown is in the same condition it was 40 years ago. It features the same mid-century architecture and format. Former mayor Clinton Young vowed to make Mount Vernon a new epicenter with a new central business district. His failed plans included establishing commercial office space and rezoning to allow high density development in

7257-577: The Great Dismal and Nottoway swamps. Other common trees include red spruce, Atlantic white cedar , tulip-poplar , and the flowering dogwood , the state tree and flower . Plants like milkweed , dandelions, daisies, ferns, and Virginia creeper , which is featured on the state flag , are also common. The Thompson Wildlife Area in Fauquier is known for having one of the largest populations of trillium wildflowers in North America. White-tailed deer , one of 75 mammal species found in Virginia, rebounded from an estimated population of as few as 25,000 in

7380-436: The Iroquois, and other allied tribes on both sides. A militia from several British colonies, called the Virginia Regiment , was led by Major George Washington , himself one of the investors in the Ohio Company. In the decade following the French and Indian War , the British Parliament passed new taxes which were deeply unpopular in the colonies, and in the House of Burgesses ; opposition to taxation without representation

7503-404: The Kentucky border and is one of only two inter-state parks in the United States. Sustainable logging is allowed in 26 state forests managed by the Virginia Department of Forestry totaling 71,972 acres (291.3 km ), as is hunting in 44 Wildlife Management Areas run by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources covering over 205,000 acres (829.6 km ). The Chesapeake Bay is not

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7626-459: The May 23 referendum, armed pro-Confederate groups prevented the casting and counting of votes from areas that opposed secession. Representatives from 27 of these northwestern counties instead began the Wheeling Convention , which organized a government loyal to the Union and led to the separation of West Virginia as a new state. The armies of the Union and Confederacy first met on July 21, 1861, in Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia ,

7749-495: The Ohio Valley region has helped cut the amount of particulate matter in Virginia's air in half. Current plans call for 30% of the Commonwealth's electricity to be renewable by 2030 and for all to be carbon-free by 2050. Forests cover 62% of Virginia as of 2021 , of which 80% is considered hardwood forest, meaning that trees are primarily deciduous and broad-leaved . The other 20% is pine, with loblolly and shortleaf pine dominating much of central and eastern Virginia. In

7872-411: The Snowman, as singles for the 1965 holiday season, the year after the TV production. Mount Vernon, New York Mount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York , United States. It is an inner suburb of New York City , immediately to the north of the borough of the Bronx . As of the 2020 census , Mount Vernon had a population of 73,893, making it the 24th-largest municipality in

7995-401: The Southside section of the city. Mount Vernon also has an established Empire Zone for commercial and industrial use, in the southern portion of the city. The city limits contain a number of city parks large and small , and Willson's Woods Park , a 23-acre (93,000 m ) county-owned park. One of the oldest parks in the county system, Willson's Woods offers a wave pool, water slides, and

8118-597: The U.S. Census Bureau found that only 0.5% of Virginians were exclusively American Indian or Alaska Native , though 2.1% were in some combination with other ethnicities. The state government has extended recognition to eleven tribes. Seven tribes also have federal recognition. The Pamunkey and Mattaponi have reservations on tributaries of the York River in the Tidewater region . [REDACTED] American Community Survey five-year estimate According to U.S. Census data as of 2022 on Virginia residents aged five and older, 83% (6,805,548) speak English at home as

8241-497: The U.S. are under Coles Hill, Virginia . Despite a challenge that reached the U.S. Supreme Court twice , the state has banned its mining since 1982 due to environmental and public health concerns. Virginia has a humid subtropical climate that transitions to humid continental west of the Blue Ridge Mountains . Seasonal extremes vary from average lows of 25 °F (−4 °C) in January to average highs of 86 °F (30 °C) in July. The Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Stream have

8364-419: The United States as of 2020 . El Salvador is the most common foreign country of birth, with India , Mexico , South Korea , the Philippines , and Vietnam as other common birthplaces. The state's most populous racial group, non-Hispanic whites , has declined as a proportion of the population from 76% in 1990 to 58.6% in 2020. Immigrants from Britain and Ireland settled throughout the Commonwealth during

8487-426: The United States. Virginia has a total area of 42,774.2 square miles (110,784.7 km ), including 3,180.13 square miles (8,236.5 km ) of water, making it the 35th- largest state by area. It is bordered by Maryland and Washington, D.C. to the northeast; by the Atlantic Ocean to the east; by North Carolina to the south; by Tennessee to the southwest; by Kentucky to the west; and by West Virginia to

8610-451: The Virginia General Assembly proposed a new surveying commission in 1871. Representatives from Tennessee preferred to keep the less-straight 1803 line, and in 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for them against Virginia . One result is how the city of Bristol is divided in two between the states. The Chesapeake Bay separates the contiguous portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginia's Eastern Shore . The bay

8733-421: The Westchester County District Attorney. Both Thomas and Wallace occupied offices in the city hall, with Thomas in the mayor's office, under the guard of the Mount Vernon Police. Finally, before a packed courtroom in White Plains, Judge Ecker made a decisive ruling that Thomas had actually vacated the office of mayor on July 8, that Wallace had automatically assumed the office at that time, and that Wallace would be

8856-613: The acting mayor of Mount Vernon until January 1, 2020. In March 2019, Mayor Richard Thomas called for the formation of the Mount Vernon Charter Revision Commission, suggesting the charter was antiquated, dating to the late 19th century. In August 2019, the Commission presented its final report which included four key proposed changes to the City's Charter: St. Paul's Church is a Mount Vernon attraction designated as

8979-667: The area held by the Seneca and their larger Iroquois Nation , and in 1748, a group of wealthy speculators, backed by the British monarchy, formed the Ohio Company to start English settlement and trade in the Ohio Country west of the Appalachian Mountains . France, which claimed this area as part of New France , viewed this as a threat, and in 1754 the French and Indian War engulfed England, France,

9102-698: The army and revolutionary militias. Virginia was the first colony to ratify the Articles of Confederation in December 1777. In April 1780, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of Governor Thomas Jefferson, who feared that Williamsburg's coastal location would make it vulnerable to British attack. British forces landed around Portsmouth in October 1780, and soldiers under Benedict Arnold raided Richmond in January 1781. The British army had over seven thousand soldiers and twenty-five warships stationed in Virginia at

9225-534: The bay as of 2024 . There are 34 native species of crayfish, like the Big Sandy . Amphibians found in Virginia include the Cumberland Plateau salamander and Eastern hellbender , while the northern watersnake is the most common of the 32 snake species. As of 2019 , roughly 16.2% of land in the Commonwealth is protected by federal, state, and local governments and non-profits. Federal lands account for

9348-553: The beginning of 1781, but General Charles Cornwallis and his superiors were indecisive, and maneuvers by the three thousand soldiers under the Marquis de Lafayette and twenty-nine allied French warships together managed to confine the British to a swampy area of the Virginia Peninsula in September. Around sixteen thousand soldiers under George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau quickly converged there and defeated Cornwallis in

9471-512: The city has a total area of 4.4 square miles (11.4 km ), of which 0.015 square miles (0.04 km ), or 0.39%, is water. Mount Vernon is bordered by the village of Bronxville and city of New Rochelle to the north, by the town of Pelham and village of Pelham Manor to the east, by the Hutchinson River and the Eastchester and Wakefield sections of the Bronx to the south, and by

9594-580: The city of Yonkers and the Bronx River to the west. Mount Vernon's elevation at City Hall is about 235 feet (72 m) , reflecting its location between the Bronx River to the west and the Hutchinson River to the east. On a clear day, the Throgs Neck Bridge can be seen from 10 miles (20 km) away from many parts of the city, while at night, the bridge's lights can also be seen. The city's seal, created in 1892, depicts what were then considered

9717-509: The city's mayor on January 1, 2008. Four years later, on January 1, 2012, Ernest D. Davis became the 21st mayor of Mount Vernon. In 2013, Davis was investigated for failure to report rental income. In 2015, Richard Thomas defeated Davis in an upset victory in the September primary. in the November general election, Thomas received 71% of the votes to become the mayor of Mount Vernon. In the subsequent 2019 election, Shawyn Patterson-Howard unseated

9840-520: The colonial period, when roughly three-fourths of immigrants came as indentured servants . The Appalachian mountains and Shenandoah Valley have many settlements that were populated by German and Scotch-Irish immigrants in the 18th and 19th centuries, often following the Great Wagon Road . Over ten percent of Virginians have German ancestry as of 2020 . The largest minority group in Virginia are Blacks and African Americans, about one-fifth of

9963-577: The colonial period. Only three other independent cities exist elsewhere in the US. The differences between counties and cities in Virginia are small and have to do with how each assess new taxes, whether a referendum is necessary to issue bonds, and with the application of Dillon's Rule , which limits the authority of cities and counties to countermand acts expressly allowed by the General Assembly . Counties can also have incorporated towns , and while there are no further administrative subdivisions ,

10086-546: The colony's start, residents agitated for greater local control, and in 1619, certain male colonists began electing representatives to an assembly, later called the House of Burgesses , that negotiated issues with the governing council appointed by the London Company. Unhappy with this arrangement, the monarchy revoked the company's charter and began directly naming governors and Council members in 1624. In 1635, colonists arrested

10209-761: The colony. Virginians fought for the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in the American Revolution , and helped establish the new national government. During the American Civil War , the state government in Richmond joined the Confederacy , while many northwestern counties remained loyal to the Union , which led to the separation of West Virginia in 1863. Although the state was under one-party rule for nearly

10332-512: The concentration of independent cities in the Tidewater region is that several rural counties there re-incorporated as cities or consolidated with existing cities to try to hold on to their new suburban neighborhoods that started booming in the 1950s , since cities like Norfolk and Portsmouth were able to annex land from adjoining counties until a moratorium in 1987. Others, like Poquoson , became cities to try to preserve racial segregation during

10455-535: The consolidated city and remain independent to this day. The Mount Vernon Public Library, a gift to the city from Andrew Carnegie , opened in 1904 and is now part of the Westchester Library System , providing educational, cultural and computer services to county residents of all ages. The Mount Vernon Trust Company , opened in 1903. It was the largest bank in Westchester County , with branches in

10578-409: The desegregation era of the 1970s. The 2020 census found the state resident population was 8,631,393, a 7.9% increase since the 2010 census . Another 23,149 Virginians live overseas, giving the state a total population of 8,654,542. Virginia has the fourth-largest overseas population of U.S. states due to its federal employees and military personnel. The fertility rate in Virginia as of 2020

10701-489: The downtown, as well as affordable and market rate housing. Mount Vernon Heights' highly elevated terrain has earned the moniker "the rolling hills of homes". It is home to the city's commercial corridor, along Sandford Boulevard (6th Street). Vernon Hills has been reclaimed from the Village of Easchester that used it as the name the name as open mall shopping center. Sandford Blvd (6th Street)—also known as "Sandford Square"—is

10824-412: The east and west sections of the city. During the 1960s, Mount Vernon was a divided city on the brink of a "northern style" segregation. Many African Americans from the southern United States migrated north and settled in the city of Mount Vernon for better job opportunities and educational advancements. At the same time, many white Americans from the Bronx and Manhattan looked to Mount Vernon as

10947-526: The eastern edge is the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, where over 1.7   million reside across six counties and nine cities, including the Commonwealth's three most populous independent cities: Virginia Beach , Chesapeake , and Norfolk . Neighboring Suffolk , which includes a portion of the Great Dismal Swamp , is the largest city by area at 429.1 square miles (1,111 km ). One reason for

11070-494: The end of slavery across the country. The seizure of Fort Sumter by Confederate forces on April 14, 1861, prompted Lincoln to call for a federal army of 75,000 men from state militias . The Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 voted on April 17 to secede on the condition it was approved in a referendum the next month. The convention voted to join the Confederacy, which named Richmond its capital on May 20. During

11193-403: The first of several invasions into Union territory. During the next three years of war, more battles were fought in Virginia than anywhere else, including the battles of Fredericksburg , Chancellorsville , Spotsylvania , and the concluding Battle of Appomattox Court House , where Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. Virginia was formally restored to the United States in 1870, due to the work of

11316-601: The highest points in Mount Vernon: Trinity Place near Fourth Street, Vista Place at Barnes Avenue, and North 10th Avenue between Washington and Jefferson places. Since then, it was discovered that the city's highest elevation is on New York Route 22 , North Columbus Avenue, at the Bronxville line. Mount Vernon is typically divided into four major sections in four square miles: Downtown, Mount Vernon Heights, North Side, and South Side. Downtown Mount Vernon features

11439-463: The incumbent Mayor Thomas in a hotly contested June primary to become the new Democratic nominee and went on to capture 81% of the vote to defeat André Wallace (who had since been named Acting Mayor and ran as a Republican) in the general election in November to become the first black woman mayor of Mount Vernon (and of any city in Westchester County). Mount Vernon has in recent years undergone

11562-566: The land on Virginia's islands, which include Tangier Island in the bay and Chincoteague , one of 23 barrier islands on the Atlantic coast. The Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line . It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay. The Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock -based foothills east of the mountains. The region, known for its heavy clay soil, includes

11685-466: The largest bloc in the House of Representatives . Together with the Virginia dynasty of presidents, this gave the Commonwealth national importance. Virginia is called the "Mother of States" because of its role in being carved into states such as Kentucky , and for the numbers of American pioneers born in Virginia. Between 1790 and 1860, the number of slaves in Virginia rose from around 290 thousand to over 490 thousand, roughly one-third of

11808-440: The late afternoon and evenings between April and September. These months are also the most common for tornadoes , eight of which touched down in the Commonwealth in 2023. Hurricanes and tropical storms can occur from August to October. The deadliest natural disaster in Virginia was Hurricane Camille , which killed over 150 people in 1969 mainly in inland Nelson County . Between December and March, cold-air damming caused by

11931-842: The majority, with thirty National Park Service units, such as Great Falls Park and the Appalachian Trail , and one national park, Shenandoah . Almost forty percent of Shenandoah's total 199,173 acres (806 km ) area has been designated as wilderness under the National Wilderness Preservation System . The U.S. Forest Service administers the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests , which cover more than 1.6 million acres (6,500 km ) within Virginia's mountains, and continue into West Virginia and Kentucky . The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge also extends into North Carolina, as does

12054-610: The middle of the 20th century, are the focus of conservation efforts in the state and a reintroduction program in Shenandoah National Park . Virginia has 226 species of freshwater fish from 25 families, a diversity attributable to the area's varied and humid climate, topography, interconnected river system, and lack of Pleistocene glaciers . Common examples on the Cumberland Plateau and higher-elevation regions include Eastern blacknose dace , sculpin , smallmouth bass , redhorse sucker , Kanawha darter , and brook trout ,

12177-499: The neighborhoods Parkside, South Side and Vernon Park. Numerous industrial businesses are in Parkside, while the rest of South Side Mount Vernon features multi-family homes, apartment buildings, and commercial businesses. South Side Mount Vernon features notable city landmarks such as Brush Park, Hutchinson Field, the Boys and Girls Club , and St. Paul's Church National Historic Site . As of

12300-465: The north and drifted an additional 3.5 miles by the border's westernmost point . After Tennessee joined the U.S. in 1796, new surveyors worked in 1802 and 1803 to reset their border with Virginia as a line from the summit of White Top Mountain to the top of Tri-State Peak in the Cumberland Mountains . However, deviations in that border were identified when it was re-marked in 1856, and

12423-459: The northwest. That Virginia's boundary with Maryland and Washington, D.C. only extends to the low-water mark of the south shore of the Potomac River has been an issue for water rights over the years. . Virginia's southern border was defined in 1665 as 36°30' north latitude . Surveyors marking the border with North Carolina in the 18th century however started about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to

12546-481: The population is of Brazilian descent; Brazilians can be included in the African American , White , Multiracial and/or Latino categories. Similarly, a significant part of the Black and/or Latino population is of Caribbean origin. There were 27,048 households, of which 40.9% were married couples living together, 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.2% were non-families, and 28.0% had

12669-513: The population. Virginia was a major destination of the Atlantic slave trade . The Igbo ethnic group of what is now southern Nigeria were the largest African group among slaves in Virginia. Blacks in Virginia also have more European ancestry than those in other southern states, and DNA analysis shows many have asymmetrical male and female ancestry from before the Civil War, evidence of European fathers and African or Native American mothers. Though

12792-607: The pre-war debt. But in 1883, they were divided by a proposed repeal of anti-miscegenation laws , and days before that year's election, a riot in Danville , involving armed policemen, left four Black men and one white man dead. These events motivated a push by white supremacists to seize political power through voter suppression , and segregationists in the Democratic Party won the legislature that year and maintained control for decades. They passed Jim Crow laws that established

12915-508: The presence of Confederate monuments in Virginia have also led to large demonstrations, including in August 2017, when a white supremacist drove his car into protesters , killing one, and in June 2020, when protests that were part of the larger Black Lives Matter movement brought about the removal of Confederate statues . Virginia is located in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of

13038-469: The rest are mostly winter residents or transients . Water birds include sandpipers, wood ducks, and Virginia rail , while common inland examples include warblers, woodpeckers, and cardinals, the state bird . Birds of prey include osprey, broad-winged hawks , and barred owls . There are no endemic bird species. Audubon recognizes 21 Important Bird Areas in the state. Peregrine falcons , whose numbers dramatically declined due to DDT poisoning in

13161-513: The southwest and Mexico by the end of the period. Palisaded towns began to be built around 1200. The native population in the current boundaries of Virginia reached around 50,000 in the 1500s. Large groups in the area at that time included the Algonquian in the Tidewater region , which they referred to as Tsenacommacah , the Iroquoian -speaking Nottoway and Meherrin to the north and south, and

13284-440: The state and largest African-American majority city in the state . Mount Vernon has 12,898 Jamaicans with African and Indian descent that had immigrated from their homeland of Jamaica after the country gained its independence from Britain on August 6, 1962. Mount Vernon has two major sections. South-side Mount Vernon is more urban, while north-side Mount Vernon is more residential. Mount Vernon's downtown business district

13407-476: The state government manages most local roads. It is also the only state where governors are prohibited from serving consecutive terms. Nomadic hunters are estimated to have arrived in Virginia around 17,000 years ago. Evidence from Daugherty's Cave shows it was regularly used as a rock shelter by 9,800 years ago. During the late Woodland period (500–1000 CE ), tribes coalesced, and farming, first of corn and squash, began, with beans and tobacco arriving from

13530-673: The state living in Northern Virginia . Northern Virginia also has a significant population of Vietnamese Americans , whose major wave of immigration followed the Vietnam War . Korean Americans have migrated there more recently, while about 45,000 Filipino Americans have settled in the Hampton Roads area. Tribal membership in Virginia is complicated by the legacy of the state's " pencil genocide " of intentionally categorizing Native Americans and Blacks together, and many tribal members do have African or European ancestry, or both. In 2020,

13653-582: The state population, and the number of slave owners rose to over 50 thousand. Both of these numbers represented the most in the U.S. The boom in Southern cotton production using cotton gins increased the amount of labor needed for harvesting raw cotton , but new federal laws prohibited the importation of slaves. Decades of monoculture tobacco farming had also degraded Virginia's agricultural productivity . Virginia plantations increasingly turned to exporting slaves , which broke up countless families and made

13776-532: The state than moving to it in 2021. This is largely credited to high home prices in Northern Virginia, which are driving residents there to relocate south; Raleigh is their top destination. Aside from Virginia, the top birth state for Virginians is New York , with the Northeast accounting for the largest number of domestic migrants into the state by region. About twelve percent of residents were born outside

13899-432: The tribes, burned Jamestown. Bacon's Rebellion forced the signing of Bacon's Laws , which restored some of the colony's rights and sanctioned both attacks on native tribes and the enslavement of their people. The Treaty of 1677 further reduced the independence of the tribes that signed it, and aided the colony's assimilation of their land in the years that followed. Colonists in the 1700s were pushing westward into

14022-483: The western and mountainous parts of the Commonwealth, oak and hickory are most common, while lower altitudes are more likely to have small but dense stands of hemlocks and mosses in abundance. Spongy moth infestations in oak trees and the blight in chestnut trees have decreased both of their numbers, leaving more room for hickory and the invasive tree of heaven . In the lowland tidewater and Piedmont , yellow pines tend to dominate, with bald cypress wetland forests in

14145-706: The world's largest naval base. Virginia's history begins with several Indigenous groups , including the Powhatan . In 1607, the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent English colony in the New World , leading to Virginia's nickname as the Old Dominion . Slaves from Africa and land from displaced native tribes fueled the growing plantation economy, but also fueled conflicts both inside and outside

14268-419: Was 14,290.3 inhabitants per square mile (5,517.5/km ), with 28,558 housing units at an average density of 7,205.9 per square mile (2,782.2/km ). The racial makeup of the city was 59.58% African American , 28.63% White , 10.48% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 4.85% from other races , 4.44% from two or more races, 2.12% Asian , 0.05% Pacific Islander , and 0.32% Native American . A significant proportion of

14391-404: Was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 82.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 76.9 males. The median income for a household in the city was $ 47,128, and the median income for a family was $ 55,573. Males had a median income of $ 41,493 versus $ 37,871 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 24,827. 13.9% of the population and 11.8% of families were below

14514-475: Was 55.8 per 1,000 females between the ages of 15 and 44, and the median age as of 2021 was the same as the national average of 38.8 years old. The geographic center of population is located northwest of Richmond in Hanover County , as of 2020 . Though still growing naturally as births outnumber deaths, Virginia has had a negative net migration rate since 2013, with 8,995 more people leaving

14637-506: Was formed from the drowned river valley of the ancient Susquehanna River . Many of Virginia's rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac , Rappahannock , York , and James , which create three peninsulas in the bay, traditionally referred to as "necks" named Northern Neck , Middle Peninsula , and the Virginia Peninsula from north to south. Sea level rise has eroded

14760-731: Was led by Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee , among others. Virginians began to coordinate their actions with other colonies in 1773 and sent delegates to the Continental Congress the following year. After the House of Burgesses was dissolved in 1774 by the royal governor , Virginia's revolutionary leaders continued to govern via the Virginia Conventions . On May 15, 1776, the Convention declared Virginia's independence and adopted George Mason 's Virginia Declaration of Rights , which

14883-690: Was responsible for building 38 warships for the U.S. Navy between 1907 and 1923. During World War I , German submarines attacked ships outside the port, which was a major site for transportation of soldiers and supplies. After the war, a homecoming parade to honor African-American troops was attacked in July 1919 by the city's police as part of a renewed white-supremacy movement, known as Red Summer . The shipyard continued building warships in World War II , and quadrupled its pre-war labor force to 70,000 by 1943. The Radford Arsenal outside Blacksburg also employed 22,000 workers making explosives, while

15006-718: Was the great-uncle of economist Steven Levitt . Marks was the nephew of Marcus M. Marks (1858–1934), a business figure who served as Borough President of Manhattan. Johnny Marks's father, Louis B. Marks, was a lighting engineer. His wife, Margaret May Marks, was the sister of Robert L. May who wrote the original story of Rudolph. He lived on West 11th Street in Greenwich Village and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City. He died on September 3, 1985, of complications from diabetes . Among Marks's many works

15129-651: Was then included in a new constitution that designated Virginia as a commonwealth . Another Virginian, Thomas Jefferson , drew upon Mason's work in drafting the national Declaration of Independence . After the American Revolutionary War began, George Washington was selected by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to head the Continental Army , and many Virginians joined

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