Fifty-five years after Black students walked through the doors of the original Minnie Howard School for the first time, a plaque will be installed honoring those whose efforts made it possible.
The historic marker, which will honor the efforts of two families who targeted the Alexandria School Board’s segregationist policies, is set to be unveiled in a ceremony on March 8.
“This marker will be placed at a time that our federal government can’t even mention diversity, equity and inclusion,” Judy Belk, one of Alexandria’s first Black public school students, told ALXnow. “I can’t tell you how emotional it makes me feel and how grateful I am that the city of Alexandria is standing its ground and acknowledging a right that was wrong.”
Belk’s mother, Maydell Casey Belk, as well as Stanley O. and Julia Adams Bradby, sought better education facilities and tools for their children and spearheaded the lawsuit.
Minnie Howard was not the first school integrated, the Office of Historic Alexandria noted that other Black students entered White schools, like Hammond High School the year before.
With the help of two NAACP attorneys, the families successfully sued the local school board in 1959 to allow their children to enroll. Judy Belk, as well as four others, ultimately began attending the Minnie Howard School on Feb. 1, 1960.
“The heroes of desegregation at this school were five brave elementary school children and their supportive parents,” the marker reads. “Despite enduring racial discrimination at school, they persevered, which has allowed other students of color to receive access to a quality public education.”
The Minnie Howard School was torn down last year after 70 years as a school building, having housed grades K-9 during its lifespan.
The site of the old building is now part of Alexandria City High School’s Minnie Howard Campus, where a new educational building was erected last year.
The sign unveiling, which is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., will be held at the site of the new school building, located at 3775 W. Braddock Road.
“For me, this marker is long overdue in acknowledging my mother and the Bradby family who really took a courageous stand in raising their hand to participate in this lawsuit,” Belk said.
