The James A. Fields House is a small but valuable stop in Newport News' African American history. Fields was born enslaved, became a teacher and lawyer, and turned this house into both a family home and a place of community work in the decades after the Civil War.
It is not a large museum, so come for the story rather than for a long exhibit circuit. Paired with the Newsome House and the old downtown waterfront, it helps make the city's Black civic history visible beyond the shipyard and military sites.