Forum panelist Ajena Rogers is the great-great-granddaughter of James Apostle Fields, who served in the legislature from 1889 to 1890.
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From slave to legislator
Virginia’s early black lawmakers honored
James Apostle Fields started life in Virginia as a slave in Hanover County. By his death in 1903, he had gone to Hampton University, earned a law degree at Howard University and been elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.