John J. Wright School

EM-4

Representatives from local African American churches organized the Spotsylvania Sunday School Union in 1905 to secure a secondary school for black children. The Union, led by educator John J. Wright, purchased 158.5 acres here in 1910 and later deeded 20 acres to the county. The Snell Training School, built by Alfred Fairchild, opened here in 1913 and was for decades the county's only public high school for black students. Renamed for John J. Wright in 1940, it burned in 1941 and was rebuilt in 1952. The building became a middle school in 1968 after desegregation was completed. In 2008, after a major renovation, the building was designated the John J. Wright Educational and Cultural Center.

Department of Historic Resources, 2019

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Spotsylvania Sunday School Union Minutes. Spotsylvania County Deed Book, 76:328. Spotsylvania School Board minutes, transcription, 5 Aug. 1940. Fredericksburg Free Lance, 2 Oct. 1906. Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 4 Feb. 1941, 23 Feb. 2005, 15 July 2007. Norfolk Journal and Guide, 18 March, 22 April 1933, 8 Feb. 1941, 28 Oct. 1950. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 9 March 1952, 9 June 1968. Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 8 May 1963. Ruth Coder Fitzgerald, A Different Story: A Black History of Fredericksburg, Stafford and Spotsylvania, Virginia (Greensboro, NC: Unicorn, 1979). Edward E. Redcay, County Training Schools and Public Secondary Education for Negroes in the South (Washington, D.C.: The John F. Slater Fund, 1935). “African American History of Spotsylvania, Virginia,” (Spotsylvania Dept. of Tourism pamphlet).