Booker T. Washington High School in the Age of Segregation, Norfolk, VA

• In Event: Innovations in Black Education and Cultural Expression

Abstract

This paper will demonstrate the ways in which Booker T. Washington High School, the first Black school in Norfolk, Virginia, falls into an ever-growing historical counternarrative of successful Black segregated American high schools. There is an overwhelming amount of literature on the origins, history and evolution of American high schools; however, this literature is often too generalized. While the impact of gender, class, and increased immigration on education is discussed; texts almost always exclude race and education, especially Black education. Still, there is a plethora of literature that attests to the less-than conditions of all-Black schooling, and the power structures that worked to embed inferiority through it. Over the past few decades, through the creation, citing and analysis of ethnographies and case studies of all-Black schools, education historians such as Vanessa Siddle Walker, Rosemary Davis, and Derrick Alridge have demonstrated common qualities across many Black segregated schools. School stakeholders collectively valued education and access to knowledge, educators were revered, and lived up to the same standards they required from their students. Schools also promoted racial pride, self-determination and uplift through pedagogical and social tools/strategies, and educators were also often able to form close relationships with students outside of the school building's parameters. Lastly, educators formed invaluable partnerships with families through home visits, and schools welcomed strong participation in parent/teacher organizations from both sides. While my research is only just beginning, initial examinations into archival sources and oral histories from prior students of Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk, Virginia have already made it evident that like these schools, Booker T. was able to attain success because of the value that the school held not just to teachers and students, but to the surrounding community, and therefore it warrants closer examination.

Author

• Trayc Freeman, University of Virginia