Week 44: An Out-of-area Education

Consolidating schools for economical reasons, standardized education, and more, as described in a 2006/07 Brookings Papers on Education Policy article "School Consolidation and Inequality" by Christopher Berry, was a hot topic in 1930 that continued for the next forty years across Virginia. With requests for school building improvements rising in the magisterial districts, state funds increasing for public education, and several United States grants given for "white school construction projects" (Shenandoah County School Board Minutes, 16 September 1938), Shenandoah County Public Schools began consolidating its one-room schoolhouses in the 1930s, as well as working as a county-wide board, rather than separate district-based entities. The first actual mention of the Shenandoah County School Board is in the January 13, 1937 issue of the Northern Virginia Daily. An article therein states: "The Shenandoah County School Board met yesterday in ... Woodstock when a number of routine business matters were disposed of and current bills approved. No issues of any great importance came before the board yesterday, the meeting being confined chiefly to the above matters and the reading and discussion of various reports. The principals of the high schools in Shenandoah County will go to Charlottesville Thursday to attend a Study Council which will be in progress there on January 14-15-16" (Northern Virginia Daily, Volume 54, Number 318, 13 January 1937 p7).

What isn't stated in this newspaper article is something that had become a white elephant in our county: of all the high schools in Shenandoah County at the time, not one of them served African Americans or other minority groups. Shenandoah County Library's Shenandoah Stories covers information pertaining to the building used until 1937 for the Woodstock Colored School, which began in 1865 when the Freedman's Bureau helped fund such facilities for recently freed African Americans. But in fact, as mentioned earlier (see Week 42: Education Without Heart), only four primary schools served African Americans in Shenandoah County during the early part of the 20th century and two of them had been located in the southern part of the county, from which Mountain View High School, North Fork Middle School, and Honey Run Elementary School now draw their current student population. 

If an African American or Hispanic student in the 1930s was interested in continuing his or her education beyond 7th grade, she or he would have to do so outside the county - an action that mimicked the expectations of Shenandoah County during pre-Civil War times when state legislature required any African American freed from slavery to leave Virginia within a year or risk re-enslavement (see Week 18: The Cost of Freedom in 1840). More specifically, our county school board sent our African American high school students to Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth, which became a public, boarding high school for regional African American students in 1938, or to Douglas School (in operation from 1927 until 1966) in Winchester, Virginia; and at one point required parents to cover any costs excessive to what the board was willing to pay (Shenandoah County School Board Minutes, 2 December 1941 and 2 October 1944). African Americans in the southern portion of Shenandoah County later attended the Lucy F. Simms School, which was built in 1938-1939, served the African American communities in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and continued the tradition of segregation that had been adopted all across the South and impacted not only where students were taught, but also encouraged a segregated workforce, as well. 

During the 1930s through 1960s, members of the African American community were often hired to drive African American students to school, according to School Board minutes. Since Interstate 81 was not completed until the 1960s, travel to Harrisonburg from Mt Jackson would have been 54 miles round trip and from Woodstock to Winchester, 64 miles. Taking into account speed maximums different from current standards, as well as other driving variables, such a commitment would have equated to approximately 2-3 hours of travel time via Route 11 each day. Caucasian students, on the other hand, attended schools within their local communities or were able to ride a public school bus; and, as we shall see in the coming weeks, received schoolhouses built from new materials, new textbooks, and much more - through board funding without requesting Caucasian parents to pay part of the fees.

These aspects of educational life for African American students, who were as native to Shenandoah County, Virginia, as their Caucasian counterparts, are made evident through the following Shenandoah County School Board Minutes:

- "Woodstock colored school petitioned by ME Zion colored church to tear down the old colored school building and use the lumber to construct a new building" (11 June 1937)

- "Execute deed to Town of Woodstock for the alley way west of Woodstock colored school house" (23 July 1937)

- "No action taken on colored children in New Market bused outside of area" (14 September 1937)

- "Cost for Woodstock colored school was $943.39" (1 March 1938)

- "Small enrollment at Mt Jackson colored school tabled" (8 November 1938)

- "Colored school in Mt. Jackson is to be continued for coming session and $66 allowed to teacher to transport children from New Market to Mt Jackson (the board pays 1/2 of insurance policy covering liability to children)" (8 August 1939)

- "Motion that matter of paying tuition of colored children be undecided until we can get in touch with Dr. Hall to see what action can be taken" (28 August 1939)

- "Board matches $20 raised by colored school at Strasburg for dental work" (6 February 1940)

- "Motion to have Rev. John Langford to be employed to transport colored pupils from Mt. Jackson and New Market to Woodstock colored school and transport of colored high school students" (22 August 1941)

- Board requests superintendent to "express the appreciation of the Shenandoah County School Board to the Regional Board of Control of the Regional High School at Manassas, Virginia for their invitation to enroll colored pupils on a similar basis as those from Warren and Rappahannack counties, and state that we are considering the possibility of educating from 9 to 12 of our negroes in their school next year" (2 December 1941)

- "Turner Mitchell transports colored high school students from Strasburg to Winchester / Marion McPherson transports colored children from New Market and Mt. Jackson to Woodstock" (8 September 1942)

- "Marion McPherson's contract canceled, Theodore Tolliver Jr. selected" (6 October 1942)

- "Greyhound bus schedule chosen for transportation from New Market and Mt Jackson to Woodstock Colored School / Theodore Tolliver's contract canceled" (1 December 1942)

- "Greyhound continued to be used for transportation needs of colored students" (6 October 1943)

- "Board notes they pay $158/pupil for African American students attending school in Manassas and instructs superintendent to let parents of three colored students in Strasburg know they are no longer willing to pay for them to attend Winchester high school any longer due to excessive cost. Any additional costs will be defrayed by the parents" (2 October 1944)

- "Six colored pupils in Strasburg are to be sent to Winchester colored high school (board pays tuition and transport) / Rev. Clarence Davis transports students at $40/month" (10 September 1945)

- "Tuition for colored children in Manassas be paid by board" (4 November 1946)

- "Colored children request to ride school buses is tabled" (1 December 1947)

- "Salary of colored bus driver, Robert Spinner, increased from $40 to $50/month" (5 December 1947)

- "GE Kingan to be paid $4 per day to drive colored children from New Market to Woodstock" (6 February 1950)

- Motion regarding the tuition of Shenandoah County colored students enrolled at Winchester City Schools - for superintendent "to work out some agreement on the expenses of these children" (3 November 1952)

- Board suggests for the superintendent "to write letters to the parents of the colored children who wish to attend school in Harrisonburg" (8 September 1958)

- "Decided to do a survey to study the colored school situation and assess creating a consolidated colored school. The Board is obtaining a colored teacher for Strasburg colored elementary school and taking New Market colored students to Harrisonburg" (9 November 1959)

- "Discussed consolidating Sunset and Creekside (colored schools) in Maurertown" (19 December 1959)

- "No motion secured for consolidating colored schools, but opted for another study" (8 February 1960)

- "Rev. James B. McKay (negro minister of Woodstock) appeared to ascertain progress on the new school for colored students" (14 March 1961)

- "Committee appointed to find suitable sites for negro schools at Woodstock and Strasburg" (10 April 1961)

- "Hannum tract of land suggested in Strasburg for negro elementary school" (7 July 1961)

- "Tract of land adjoining Creekside (in Woodstock) suggested for negro elementary school" (14 August 1961)

- "Made a motion to condemn school sites for negro pupils at both Strasburg and Woodstock" (11 December 1961)

- "Advised Board of Supervisors to approve the condemnation of negro school sites" (20 December 1961)

- "Board of Supervisors approved resolution to condemn negro school sites. Resolution requesting to buy the Sunset School site and to apply to State School Construction Authority for a $50,000 loan" (14 May 1962)

- Board recommends that "as in former years, buses be provided to transport negro students to high schools in Harrisonburg and Winchester" (13 August 1962)

- "Bus #27 picks up 8 negro students at Middletown and Stephens City and transports them to Winchester high school at $15/student" (11 March 1963)

The minutes reveal that decisions surrounding education for African Americans, especially as it pertained to spending funds for African American schools or for related African American student or African American teacher expenses, were often done partially, with a limited maximum amount of expenditures that was less than those for Caucasian students or Caucasian teachers, or were continually deferred by committee studies and noncommittal stallings as if they were hoping the African American community would leave the county so that they would no longer need to consider such decisions.

And yet, Shenandoah County had a clear interest in literacy education for its Caucasian illiterate adults. An interesting article in the Strasburg News holds the following bolded headline, "Friends of Adult Persons Who Cannot Read or Write Asked to Communicate with Supt. Office," and shares the illiteracy rates in 1930 for Virginia counties. Shenandoah County, considered to be part of the Valley region, is noted as having 525 "Illiterate Native White" persons out of the region's 13,940 people labeled as "illiterate native white" and which the paper indicates as a "3.3 percentage." In reality, it is actually 3.8 percent - a number tied with Frederick and Roanoke (Strasburg News, Volume 49, Number 41, 14 October 1931, p.1). Not realizing the error, the editors state: "These figures indicate Shenandoah as the lowest in the Valley group of counties. This is cause for a reasonable feeling of pride in Shenandoah white only but one must consider that Shenandoah has very few negroes and only a very small number of illiterate among these;" and they continue by giving "the average for negroes in the State in 1930 (as) 7.4%," until conceding that "it has been difficult to get the names of the 525 illiterates of Shenandoah County. If illiterates who desire instruction will give us their names and addresses we shall be able to make up a list for the county. If we can get enough of these persons to one central point in the community we can organize a class. Several of the teachers have already offered their services for this kind of work. The cost of textbooks is not very high" (Strasburg News, Volume 49, Number 41, 14 October 1931, p.1, 6). So, while the school board limited costs for African American students and pushed them out of the county for secondary school, according to school board minutes, the superintendent actively promoted unhampered and in-county education not only for Caucasian youth, but also for illiterate Caucasian adults throughout Shenandoah County.

Despite efforts and compulsory education laws that began in some form as early as 1870, not everyone in the community received an education. A 1939 article shares the following overview regarding Virginia's youth in relation to school attendance: "In spite of a high migration record and a declining birthrate, there are today 100,000 white children and 50,000 Negro children, 7 to 19 years of age, in Virginia who are not in any kind of a school. Teachers' salaries are notoriously low in our public schools, and school facilities and opportunities are substandard in many of our localities" (Northern Virginia Daily, Volume 57, Number 60, 11 March 1939 p 5). As was noticed in 1930, more school boards were consolidating to address the "meager physical facilities" issue (Strasburg News, Volume 48, Number 46, 14 November 1930, p4) and the state legislature was working to make sure funding was available for at least eight-month terms for children in public schools, with the hope of expanding to nine-months of education (Radford News Journal, Volume 8, Number 22, 19 December 1935, p3). 

During this time of consolidation and conversation surrounding illiteracy and attendance, another court case brought attention to the 1896 "separate, but equal" clause of Plessy v. Ferguson (see Week 43: Where's the 'Common Sense Consideration'?), and related to professional education after secondary schools in Missouri for African Americans: Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938). In 1935, Lloyd Gaines, an African American graduate from the traditionally African American Lincoln University, was denied admission to the University of Missouri's graduate school, because the institution did not have a counterpart graduate law school for African Americans. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the University either had to admit Gaines or provide him with comparable education within the state. Shenandoah County newspapers share: "At the present time, negroes desirous of pursuing professional studies are aided financially by the state in out-of-Virginia institutions, but the Supreme Court held in the Missouri case that this did not comply with the 'equal facilities' provision of education. Officials viewed as unlikely that negroes would be permitted to attend classes in such state supported schools as the University of Virginia. It was recalled that the state constitution specifies that white and negro education be segregated" (Northern Virginia Daily, Volume 56, Number 291, 14 December 1938, p1). The article continues with: "A member of the State Board of Education said the court ruling could well be applied to Virginia education 'right down the line.' Such an application of the ruling would affect elementary and secondary schools, salaries of negro teachers and physical properties in proportion to the number of negroes of school age as well as the college problem." 

The country was grumbling for a larger conversation regarding public education for African Americans in the United States of America, and as we will see in the coming weeks, Virginia and even Shenandoah County communities and leaders were entering this conversation with massive resistance.