Opening of Black high schools

In 1909, Armstrong, the first Black high school in Richmond, opened its doors. In 1914, Booker T. Washington in Norfolk became the state’s first accredited high school for Black students. In 1926, the first Black high school in Charlottesville, Jefferson High, opened. In some cities like Charlottesville, local leaders worked to ensure that schools for Black children would be architecturally inferior to schools for white children.

Armstong was first known as the Richmond Colored Normal School. The school would be moved several times throughout the 1900s, until settling on its current location, 2300 Cool Lane, in Richmond, Virginia.

Image source: Richmond Family Magazine.