Sunset Hill School

AB-4

The Queen Street School, one of the first schools in Shenandoah County for African Americans, had opened in Strasburg by 1875. After a fire in 1929, a new school known as Sunset Hill was built here ca. 1930 to serve grades 1-7. Because the county had no high school for African American students, graduates had to go elsewhere to attend higher grades. African American residents petitioned for better facilities, and the school board considered building a new segregated elementary school as late as 1962, eight years after the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that public school segregation was unconstitutional. Sunset Hill closed in 1964 when Shenandoah County schools were fully desegregated.

Department of Historic Resources, 2020

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Shenandoah County School Board Minutes Laura Marquetta Mitchell, “Queen Street-Sunset Hill Schools (1875-1965)” (2012). “Early Schools of Shenandoah County, Virginia” (Woodstock, VA: Shenandoah County Historical Society, 1995). C. Douglas Cooley, “A Pictorial Display in the Strasburg Museum” Pupil Placement Board records, Library of Virginia “Sunset View School” (Shenandoah County Library) Norfolk Journal and Guide, 23 June, 22 Sept. 1962. Harrisonburg Daily News Record, 7 July 1964. Washington Post, 9 July 1964. Richmond Times Dispatch, 13 Feb., 21 March 1962. Washington Evening Star, 31 Aug. 1962. Harrisonburg Daily News Record, 19 Sept. 1962. Northern Virginia Daily, 19 Sept. 1962, 7 July 1964. Strasburg News, 1 Nov. 1929.