BUCKINGHAM COUNTY, VA (CVILLERIGHTNOW) – A new state historical highway marker will be installed in Buckingham County recognizing Beulah M. Wiley, who led efforts to establish the Central Virginia Community Health Center in 1970. Approved by the Virginia Board of Historic Resources at the end of the year, the sign will highlight Wiley’s role in advancing community healthcare in the region. The marker’s proposed location is 25892 N. James Madison Highway. According to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the markers are created not to “honor their subjects but rather to educate and inform the public about a person, place, or event of regional, state, or national importance. In this regard, erected markers are not memorials.” Installation can take eight months or more once approved.

Beulah Marshall Munford Wiley (1923–1987)
Beulah M. Wiley, a 1941 Cumberland Training School graduate, was a Black healthcare pioneer. She led an intensive campaign to establish the Central Virginia Community Health Center (CVCHC), which opened here in 1970. This was the state’s first community health facility funded by the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, created in 1964 as part of the War on Poverty. The drive for community healthcare emerged from the Civil Rights Movement. The CVCHC was a product of Wiley’s activism and brought high-quality care to underserved families in Buckingham, Cumberland, and Fluvanna Counties. It later expanded into a broad network of facilities serving tens of thousands of patients annually.