Saturday, Feb. 23, 2024
White Woman: I was 15, a 9th grader, on the cheerleading squad and the editor of the school newspaper, when Stratford Junior High integrated on February 2, 1959. The Washington Post contacted my journalism teacher and asked if the school editors would collaborate with the Washington Post, as no national journalist were allowed on the school grounds. I was so excited to be asked. I got to go to the Post headquarters. They gave me a special notebook and pen. Yet, the day was peaceful and I had nothing to report.
Black Girl: I started at Stratford Junior High in September of 1959 with 3 other black classmates. Now a total of 8 black students attended the school (as the first four started on 2/2/59). I thought I might not be smart enough to attend this white school. But quickly, I realized my black teachers at the all-black school in Arlington had prepared me well. I loved having new books to learn from. I didn’t like that I couldn’t join any clubs. I used to be in the chorus at my black school but I was not allowed to join the chorus at Stratford. Black students could only attend classes and then had to go right back to our Halls Hill neighborhood. .
Hispanic man, 10 years younger than the two women on the panel: I immigrated to Arlington. As a young child in my native country, I knew one black clergyman and I really liked him. I was looking forward to meeting more Blacks when I moved to America. However, the neighborhood I moved to in Arlington and the school I attended for ES was mostly all white. My family and I were brainwashed into believing that the Arlington schools with the most black students were bad schools. People would say, “You don’t want to go to that school.” I ended up attending Stratford Junior High and I loved it. I never heard that it was the first school to be integrated in the Commonwealth of VA. It was not until I became an adult, got a job in Arlington County government as a surveyor, that I started to learn about all the black neighborhoods, like Halls Hill and Green Valley in Arlington and how schools were first segregated and then started to be integrated. “I encourage all to keep learning the history of this area. Knowledge is power”.
The above is a summary of some of the things I remember hearing during my middle school’s weekend celebration to commemorate the 65th Anniversary of the school becoming the first secondary school to integrate in the state of VA. I’m still thinking about this panel discussion.
Hearing the white woman, I found it so interesting that the Washington Post used her to try to get information. So often, as humans, we want to feel important and we agree to things. Maybe even convince ourselves that we are being helpful. I wonder if I would have agreed, like she did.
Hearing the woman who was one of the first black students at this school, her memory from that time was just being happy to go to school and be with friends. She was less aware of the history being made and more focused on how this school was so much closer to her house. It was just a bummer that she couldn’t join the chorus. I wonder what would have happened if she had tried to speak up to also change the rule so she could join the chorus? I guess, one thing at a time.
Hearing the gentleman speak, he seemed to have reflected so much of this time in history. His surveying job in the county kept him learning. Like how he discovered how many of the black neighborhoods were walled. As he suggested, I do want to know more about my town, now and throughout history.
Listening to these three, I also have been thinking of the land we walk on, Native American land and those first people. They worked for the collective good of their community. I wonder why that human way of being did not stick? Instead, whites created laws and walls to contain black families, who then fought to change the rules. Why, like the Washington Post 65 years ago, are humans more focused at times on their individual wants and desires? Human motivation fascinates me. Why do people act that way?
Writing Stories by Sally 