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Historical Highway MarkersParker-Gray High SchoolE-137
On this site stood Parker-Gray High School, the first high school for African American students in Alexandria. Before the school was built, African American students had to attend school in the District of Columbia. The noted civil rights attorney Charles Houston and other local activists persuaded the city of Alexandria to appropriate funds to build the school, and it opened in 1950. Because of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. the Board of Education decision, court-ordered desegregation began in 1959. The last class graduated from the high school in 1965. Parker-Gray closed in 1979 as a middle school. The Parker-Gray Historic District bears the school’s name.
Department of Historic Resources, 2008 See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov. |
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References/Bibliographic Citation: The Alexandria Gazette, November 1931, p. 1 The Alexandria Gazette, 4 December 1931, p. 10. The Alexandria Gazette, 4 December 1931, p. 1. The Alexandria Gazette,3 November 1932, p. 1 The Alexandria Gazette, 7 December 1932, p. 1 The Alexandria Gazette,9 October 1933, p. 7. Lyles, Mabel T. Caught Between Two Systems: Desegregating Alexandria’s Schools, 1954-1973. (Xlibris Publishing Company, Philadelphia PA, 2006). P. 17. Neely, Mildred Sola. Charles Hamilton Houston: A Visionary on Racial Equality.” US Department of State (Washington, D.C.), 2008. |