Separate but Equal: Preserving the Past through Historical Preservation

Goal of this Project We will be creating a database of “separate but equal” schools throughout Virginia to showcase the segregated conditions of the Jim Crow Era. Most of these buildings were either closed/torn down or renamed. When this happens, the former purpose of the building (and the history) disappears with it. Union School was used as a storage shed for the Town of Leesburg Ashburn Colored School was abandoned and used for storage before it was vandalized with racial epithets. We are NOT preserving attitudes, we are educating the public on what separate-but-equal meant so it may never be repeated.

For each county, you must find the following: Buildings (white and black) that were utilized as segregated schools in Virginia. Build date, location, use after Massive Resistance, and attempts at preservation.

Louisa County High School Constructed in 1940 757 Davis Highway, Mineral, VA 23117 Originally a two story structure with auditorium on the back. Common school design of the time utilizing Classical Revival elements. Desegregated after Massive resistance in 1960, freedom of choice plans allowed limited integration until full integration occurred in 1970. It participated shortly within Virginia’s Massive Resistance to follow the Stanley protocol. Destroyed by the Central Virginia Earthquake in 2011. New High School Rebuilt on site. Since the building was condemned and destroyed, the history of the building should be preserved.

Louisa Training School Constructed and Expanded between 1917 and 1926 This was a Rosenwald School Closed in 1951 as students consolidated into the AG Richardson High School. Reopened as Zelda Morton Elementary, and closed permanently in 1960. While it was not a participant in Virginia’s Massive Resistance, construction of AG Richardson was an attempt to appease the African American Community at the deplorable conditions of the Louisa Training School. Part of the building is utilized as apartments It represents the origins of Louisa segregated education.

AG Richardson High School This would be renamed Thomas Jefferson Elementary School when integration occurred throughout the 1960s.

Ferncliff School Constructed in 1948 to replace a one room African American Schoolhouse called Evergreen (one of the worst schools in the county). Currently abandoned The school opened in 1956 and was furnished with old desks that the white schools replaced when they got new desks. This was the "hand-me-down" furniture. The building consisted of five classrooms for seven grades. Several rooms and teachers had to teach two grades at one time. Mrs. Gladys Perkins (deceased) was the only principal ever to serve there. Along with being principal, she also was the teacher for the six and seventh grade classes.

Good vs. Bad Examples Louisa High School Louisa Training School Ferncliff School- Only one photo, sections copied and pasted without citations. Incorrect information utilized. AG Richardson School- one photo with incomplete information when there is MUCH more available