2026 SESSION
ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 148
Commending Naomi Hodge-Muse.
Agreed to by the Senate, March 13, 2026
WHEREAS, in 2025, Naomi Hodge-Muse received the Black Appalachian Storytellers Fellowship Award from the National Association of Black Storytellers for her contributions as a community leader and author; and
WHEREAS, Naomi Hodge-Muse is a child of Black Appalachia and grew up in Henry County, the easternmost county in the Commonwealth considered to be part of Appalachia, where she can trace her family ancestry back to the early 1700s; and
WHEREAS, Naomi Hodge-Muse has preserved the heritage of Appalachia as co-author of Tales of Koehler Hollow: An African American Family in Rural Appalachia , which won the Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book: Nonfiction in 2025; and
WHEREAS, Naomi Hodge-Muse, a proud graduate of Virginia Union University, earned a four-year full tuition scholarship and worked her way through college; and
WHEREAS, after graduating college, Naomi Hodge-Muse returned to Henry County and helped pull her family out of poverty by acquiring a job at a local DuPont facility; and
WHEREAS, for 23 years, Naomi Hodge-Muse has also served the Henry County community as president of both the Martinsville-Henry County NAACP and the Martinsville-Henry County Voters League; and