Douglass High School

Loudoun County’s Black high school students attended classes in an old, unsafe building until local Black activism led to the construction of Douglass High School in 1941. Black residents formed the County-Wide League in 1938, raised $4,000, purchased land for the new school, and retained civil rights attorney Charles H. Houston to help persuade county officials to allocate funds for the school. After the League sold the property to the school board for $1, the county obtained a loan from the State Literary Fund for construction. Douglass High, named for abolitionist Frederick Douglass, closed when county schools were desegregated in 1968. The building later housed other educational programs.