The first Africans were brought against their will to Virginia 400 years ago this year. The struggles of their descendants to survive, and finally thrive, in Virginia, was largely dependent upon their ability to access educational opportunities. Beyond the suffering and degradation faced by those held in bondage, even those comparatively advantaged free Black families faced enormous difficulties accessing education, as the teaching of free Black children was outlawed for decades in Virginia before the Civil War.

There was no state-wide system of free public education in Virginia until 1870. From the settlement at Jamestown until well into the 1800's, the general sentiment among the ruling class was against a system of public schooling, as there was no interest in upward mobility of the lower classes. In general, there was no demand for schools among elected leaders, who tended to be wealthy landowners. Wealthy planters could have their children educated at home by private tutors, passing down their privileged educational standings just as they passed down their land and wealth to the next generation.

The post-Civil War state constitution of 1870 changed the course of history, officially calling for a state system of public education. But schools were, from the outset, separated by race. It was not until 1960 that desegregation even began in Fairfax County Public Schools, and it was not officially accomplished until 1965 (though true integration was a process that lasted well beyond the date of the closing of the last segregated Black school.)

The timeline above, a popular graphic spread as a meme on social media (origin unknown), spans 400 years from slavery, through segregation, until now, aiming to illustrate the severity of the historical hardships facing African-Americans, as a rebuttal to the idea that "it was so long ago" or "just get over it."

But this graphic paints a much rosier picture than reality for Black families in Fairfax County. During the years that the graphic above paints as "yellow", educational opportunities were not just limited, they were largely unavailable. In fact, no high school for Black students even existed in Fairfax County until 1954, and that high school remained racially segregated for another 11 years.

My less elegant attempt to illustrate the timeline more accurately for Fairfax County is below:

Before Luther P. Jackson High School opened in 1954, there were no options for Black students to attend school in Fairfax County Public Schools beyond seventh grade. Determined and ambitious Fairfax County students seeking a secondary education would have to attend Manassas Regional High School or pay tuition to attend Dunbar, Cardoza, or Armstrong High Schools or Phelps Vocational Center in Washington, DC. (Henderson & Hussey, 1965). This caused considerable hardship both for students who were forced to discontinue schooling prematurely and for students who had to endure hours-long commutes each way or long separations from their families.

When I learned that Fairfax County's first high school did not open until 1954, after segregated schooling was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, I felt ashamed that, as a Fairfax County teacher, I had no idea of the county's very recent history of denial of educational opportunity.

Further, I really had no understanding, beyond knowing about Massive Resistance, of why it took Fairfax until 1965 to officially desegregate. To what extent was there communitiy support for integration of schools? To what extent was FCPS desegregation voluntary, or did the county dig in its heels and resist as long as possible until forced by court order?

This site attempts to communicate a timeline of my growing understanding of the long road from segregation toward educational equity in Fairfax County Schools. There is no published book about the history of desegregation in Fairfax County, and I have attempted to build a timeline to help bring together primary and secondary sources to tell the story more clearly. It is a work in progress, and I will continue to build links to primary source documents as well as other secondary sources.

The most fully built-out years of the timeline span the years from post-World War II to 1965. I am still working on building much more detail about the years before 1954. Please use the Timeline drop-down at top to navigate through these sections.