FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — It is officially Black History Month and we are bringing you some quick Black history facts about the DMV!
Did you know that during the Jim Crow era, Fairfax County had only one high school for Black students to attend? According to the Fairfax County website, Luther Jackson High School opened in 1954 after many community members pushed for a school in the county.
Prior to the opening of the school, Black students were forced to commute to Manassas, Virginia or D.C. and pay tuition for their education if they wanted to continue school past the seventh grade. According to the school district's records, this is because from 1907 to 1954 there was no public high school that Black students could attend in Fairfax.
The school that students commuted to in Manassas was the Manassas Industrial School. According to the county's website, Fairfax Co. started to pay tuition for Black students to attend the school for the 1937-1938 school year. In June 1938, the Fairfax County School Board purchased the Manassas Industrial School alongside the school boards of Prince William and Fauquier counties to operate the school as a regional high school for Black students.
Above is a picture of the school’s Principle, Taylor Williams, who held the position until the high school’s closing.
Below we can see students from the National Honor Society at Luther Jackson High School in 1958.
In the school's first yearbook from 1955, students dedicated the book to quote “parents and patrons, the dreamers who fought so diligently to make this school a reality.”
The school ended up closing in June 1965 as a result of racial desegregation in Fairfax County Public Schools. It later reopened that September as Luther Jackson intermediate school.
