Virginia Teachers Association

Q-6-41

African American educators organized the Virginia Teachers' Reading Circle here at the Jackson Street Methodist Episcopal Church on 13 Aug. 1887. Established during a session of the Peabody Normal Institute, a summer course for teachers from across the state, the Reading Circle provided professional development for teachers of black students in Virginia’s public schools. James Hugo Johnston, second president of what is now Virginia State University, was elected to lead the organization. Later known as the Virginia Teachers Association, the group served black educators until it merged with the Virginia Education Association on 1 Jan. 1967.

Department of Historic Resources, 2016

See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

DHR could use your help! We don't have a recent image of this marker. If you have one that you'd like to submit for inclusion on this site, please send it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

References/Bibliographic Citation:

James H. Johnston, “Lynchburg Institute,” Seventeenth Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Virginia (1887), 57-65. Luther P. Jackson, A History of the Virginia State Teachers Association (Norfolk: The Guide Publishing Company, Inc., 1937). John M. Gandy, “The Virginia State Teachers Association: An Historical Sketch,” The Virginia Teachers Bulletin (January 1933). J. Rupert Picott, History of the Virginia Teachers Association (Washington, D.C.: The National Education Association, 1975). A Guide to the James Hugo Johnston Sr. Papers, 1865-1914, Virginia State University. VEA News (Dec. 1966). William H. Johnson Jr., Keeping the Promise: 150 Years of Advocacy for Children and Public Education (Richmond: The Virginia Education Association, 2014). Norfolk Journal and Guide, 12 Nov. 1966.