Timeline: 1870-World War II
Odrick's Corner School was a school for African American children that operated from around 1872-1944. (Image courtesy of Jeff Clark, Fairfax County Public Schools)
1894
September 3 - On the 56th anniversary of his escape from slavery, Frederick Douglass gave an extraordinary speech dedicating the new Manassas Industrial School, which would remain open to Black students until 1959 and served as the only officially sanctioned option for post 7th grade schooling for Fairfax County's Black student population until 1954, when Luther Jackson High School opened.
The famous orator noted the historical signicance of the location of the school, saying, "Since the great and terrible battle with which its name is associated...no event has occurred here, so important in its character and influence, and so every way significant, as the event which we have this day met to inaugurate and celebrate.
"To found an educational institution for any people is worthy of notice, but to found a school, in which to instruct, improve, and develop all that is noblest and best in the souls of a deeply wronged and long neglected people, is especially worthy." (Douglass, 1894)
"The founding of this and similar schools on the soil of Virginia - a state formerly the breeder, buyer, and seller of slaves; a State so averse, in the past, to the education of colored people as to make it a crime to teach a negro to read, - is one of the best fruits of agitation of a half a century, and firm foundaton of hope for the future."
"Thirty years ago when Federal and Confederate armies met here in deadly conflict over the question of the perpetual enslavement of the Negro, who would or could have dreamed that in a single generation, such changes would be wrought in the minds of men that a school would be founded here for the mental, moral and industrial educaion of the children of this same people whose enslavement was sought even with the sword?" (Douglass, 1894)
Douglass noted gravely the growing resistance to Black education, the disenfranchisement of so many Black men who had gained political power since the Civil War, and the evident backlash against Black upward mobility. "The resistance we now meet is the proof of our progress," he said.
Frederick Douglass died less than 6 months after delivering this speech.
The resistance we now meet is the proof of our progress.
1896
The Plessy v Ferguson decision in 1896 enshrined the "separate but equal" doctrine that underpinned a system of segregated education. In Virginia, however, since schools had been segregated since 1870, the Plessy decision didn't have much of an impact on the status quo.
IMAGE CREDIT:Plessy v. Ferguson 1896, Britannica ImageQuest
1915
The "Colored Citizens Protective League" was founded in Falls Church in 1915 to fight a segregation ordinance that would have required black landowners to sell their land and be forced to move to one small pocket in the town. The Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on the lawn of Edwin Bancroft Henderson, who led the successful suit.
This group would later morph into the Fairfax Branch of the NAACP, led by Henderson, who would go on to lead the NAACP state branch during pivotal years of the desegregation fight. (Moreno, 1998).
1932
Hoffman-Boston Junior-Senior High School in Arlington, the first secondary school for Black students in Arlington, opens. It was not accredited by the state until the 1950’s, and its facilities were substandard, so many Black students in Arlington still commuted to DC for junior and high school, as did Black students from Fairfax County.
The first 7 students from Hoffman-Boston graduated in 1941, and in the 7 years they had been at the school, it had never been accredited. (Arlington Public Library, 2018).
1940's and early 1950's: Reflections on Segregated Education
Two former students reflected on attending segregated Fairfax County Schools in this video filmed in 2001.
Joe Carpenter, a 1948 graduate of Floris Colored School, reflects (at the 17:00 mark in the video) on the difficulty of getting to and from school without the option of a school bus for colored students. He states that he traveled approximately 10 miles round trip each day and that some students traveled to Floris from as far as Chantilly, a 10 mile trip each way. (Fairfax County Public Schools, 2001).
When Joe Carpenter went on to high school at the Jennie Dean school in Manassas (the Manassas Industrial High School), he had to walk 5 miles to Floris, then ride a bus to Chantilly to take a second bus all the way to Manassas. The second hand buses passed down from the white schools had broken springs and were very uncomfortable. Carpenter mentions also that they always got secondhand books.
Phyllis Coates O'Neill, also a student of the Floris Colored School, remembered that white students had buses, and they did not. She said the teacher would typically be somewhat lenient.
Carpenter started high school in Manassas in a bricklaying program, and eventually transferred to Luther Jackson. Carpenter reflected on the fact that there were two dormitories on campus at "Jennie Dean", that some students stayed there all week long.
Fairfax County Park Authority historian Yvonne Johnson noted that Fairfax had more students at Manassas Industrial High School than all 3 counties put together - there was a great demand to serve the needs of Black high school students here in Fairfax County. (Fairfax County Public Schools, 2001).
1939
A new school building for the Vienna Colored School opens in 1939 after a long history of advocacy by principal Louise Archer. The school would later be renamed for her after her death. More about Louise Archer, including archival photographs, below.
1944
FCPS Principal George Felton recalled that there was no pay equity for BlackFCPS teachers until 1944. (Fairfax County Public Schools, 1988).
1945
Manassas Industrial School, with over 500 students from 5 Northern Virginia counties, celebrated its 50th anniversary. ("Manassas Negro School", 1945).
1946
Manassas Industrial School gets $75,000 in State funding to build a new shop building, and the school districts in joint ownership of the school make plans to build a girls' dormitory. ("Trade school", 1946).
1947
Members of the Arlington NAACP sue Arlington regarding substandard facilities for Black students.
Later that year in Arlington, Constance Carter attempted to enroll at Washington-Lee HS, stating that Hoffman-Boston didn’t offer Spanish, typewriting, and physical education. She was denied, which later led to Carter v. School Board of Arlington County. (Arlington Public Library, 2018).
No similar efforts of a Black student to enroll in a segregated white FCPS school have [yet] been found.