A new historic interpretation sign now stands at Alexandria City High School’s Minnie Howard Campus, commemorating five young Black students who integrated the formerly all-white Minnie Howard Elementary School in 1960.
The sign, unveiled Saturday during a special ceremony attended by more than 100 people, honors Judy Belk, Vickie Belk, Marie Bradby, Deborah Bradby, and James O. Bradby – known as the “Minnie Howard Five.”
“We are here to make sure that current and future generations know their local history,” said Gretchen Bulova, Director of the Office of Historic Alexandria, who opened the ceremony.
The event brought a light a pivotal moment in Alexandria’s civil rights history that occurred six years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.
Mayor Alyia Gaskins delivered an official apology from the City of Alexandria to the families, acknowledging the discrimination they faced.
“The City of Alexandria offers a sincere, heartfelt and unreserved apology for our failure to deny equity in education for generations of students,” Gaskins said. “We acknowledge the discrimination and the hardships inflicted on your family and hundreds of other families as you all fought for equal education for your children.”
Marie Bradby, one of the original five students who integrated the school, shared her first-hand account of the experience and the long history of educational inequality faced by Black Alexandrians.
“You’re not judged by the height you have risen, but from the depths you have climbed,” Bradby said, quoting Frederick Douglass.
Bradby recounted how her family’s struggle for education spans generations, tracing back to her great-great-grandfather George Wesley Adams, born a free man in 1825 but unable to read or write due to anti-literacy laws in Virginia.
Despite the 1954 Supreme Court ruling against school segregation, Alexandria’s schools remained segregated. Bradby describes how Black children from her neighborhood were bussed to overcrowded, under-resourced schools in Old Town, passing multiple white schools along the way.
In 1958, several families, including the Bradbys and Belks, joined a lawsuit against Alexandria City Public Schools. The suit was argued by NAACP lawyers Frank D. Reeves and Otto L. Tucker under the guidance of Thurgood Marshall.
“Our parents’ courage and the personal hardships that we endured fostered equal rights,” Bradby said.
She recalled the isolation she experienced as the only Black child in her classroom. “I remember sitting every day at lunch and recess by myself, no one spoke to me.”
Family members of the original students attend the ceremony, with many traveling long distances to participate. Lamont Belk, son of Vickie Belk, expressed gratitude for his mother’s sacrifice.
“I’m a beneficiary of the sacrifice of Judy and Vicky and the Bradby children and all the other plaintiffs,” Belk said. “I navigated public and private education in this city without the scourge of racism and segregation that they experienced.”
The historic marker details how the families sought better facilities, textbooks, materials, equipment, and closer schools for their children. It explains how school officials initially rejected their enrollment applications based on false notions that Black students lacked “academic preparedness” and were “intellectually unfit” for white public schools.
Dr. Michelle Rief, chair of the Alexandria School Board, acknowledged the courage of the families and the role of the NAACP in bringing about change. She also addressed the aftermath of integration, including white flight from Alexandria and decades of disinvestment in public schools.
“When we adopt a zero sum paradigm, which is the idea that progress for some must come at the expense of others, then we all lose,” Rief said. “When we pursue racial equity, it benefits all of us.”
Dr. Clinton Page, Chief Accountability and Research Officer for Alexandria City Public Schools, highlights how the school system now serves over 16,300 students from 118 countries who speak 127 languages.
“It was the families like the Belks and Bradby’s who we’ve heard today who courageously faced the challenges of desegregation, ensuring that all children had access to an equal and high quality education,” Page said.
The sign stands at the site of the original Minnie Howard School, which opened in 1954 and served the community for 70 years before being replaced by a new building in 2024.
The ceremony concluded with a ribbon-cutting, with family members and officials gathering around the new marker as attendees cheered “DEI” – diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The five students who integrated Minnie Howard all went on to successful careers, according to the program for the event. James Bradby, an Air Force veteran, worked in retail management. Marie Bradby became an award-winning journalist and children’s author. Deborah Bradby-Lytle served as an art teacher in Alexandria City Public Schools for 41 years. Vickie Belk worked as a management analyst with the Department of Agriculture. Judy Belk became a nonprofit executive.
The historic sign is part of the Alexandria Heritage Trail, which preserves and promotes the city’s history for future generations.
