Booker T. Washington High School

KV-30

John T. West High School, one of Virginia's first accredited public high schools for African Americans, was renamed in 1917 for Booker T. Washington, educator, author, and orator. The school moved to a newly constructed building in 1924 and for decades was Norfolk’s only public high school for black students. Its programs were central to the community. In 1939-1940, faculty members Aline Black and Melvin Alston pursued legal action that led to a federal court decision requiring salary equalization for black and white teachers. In Sept. 1963, students marched to protest poor facilities. Norfolk implemented a desegregation plan in 1970, and the school moved into a new building here in 1974.

Department of Historic Resources, 2018

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Norfolk Journal and Guide, 30 March 1917, 16 Feb. 1924, 23 Nov. 1940, 17 Jan. 1953, 2 Dec. 1962, 5 Sept. 1970, 23 Feb. 2000. Courses of Study and Records of the Public High Schools of Virginia…Accompanied by the Report of Virginia Commission on Accredited Schools (Richmond: Department of Public Instruction, 1914). Third, Fourth, and Fifth Annual Report of the Public High Schools of Virginia (Richmond: Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1915, 1916, 1917). The Washingtonian (1925 Year Book). Alston v. School Board of City of Norfolk, 112 F.2d 992 (4th Cir. 1940). Jeffrey L. Littlejohn and Charles H. Ford, Elusive Equality: Desegregation and Resegregation in Norfolk’s Public Schools (Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2012). Jeffrey L. Littlejohn and Charles H. Ford, “Booker T. Washington High School: History, Identity, and Educational Equity in Norfolk, Virginia,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 124, no. 2 (2016): 135-159. Thomas C. Parramore, et al., Norfolk: The First Four Centuries (Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 2000). Gary Ruegsegger, The History of Norfolk’s Public Schools, 1681-2000 (Norfolk: Norfolk Public Schools, 2000). “Booker T. Washington High School, Norfolk, VA” https://hrhbhs.weebly.com/booker-t-washington-norfolk.html Brent Tarter, “Black, Aline Elizabeth,” Dictionary of Virginia Biography, vol. 1 (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1998). “Through Their Eyes, The Crisis in Black Education,” Norfolk Public Library, 2017. Denise Watson, “The Norfolk 17 Face a Hostile Reception as Schools Reopen,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 3 Oct. 2008.