Peter G. Murrell, Jr, the late educational psychologist, said: “Education is the practice of assisting people to find agency in, and responsibility for, the struggle for freedom.” The Virginia Interscholastic Association (VIA) embodied that concept. The VIA was an organization of Black high schools created in 1954 before integration by Black principals and administrators with operational funds from the Virginia General Assembly. The organization provided diverse activities such as athletics, arts, academic competitions, and student associations. Virginia State University (VSU) served as the host institution and primary location for athletic events, while Hampton Institute, Virginia Union University, St. Paul’s College, and VSU hosted math and science competitions.
The Story of the VIA website is a collaborative project of Virginia State University (VSU), the VIA Heritage Association (VIAHA), and the Washington, DC, nonprofit organization Teaching for Change. VSU and VIAHA support Teaching for Change’s assertion that “education must encourage academic excellence and embrace crucial skills for progressive social change.” The joint project honors the legacy of the Black students and their teachers, coaches, and mentors who participated in the illustrious Association from 1954-1970. The website, which launched in 2018, contains digitized photos, interviews, and other primary sources, mainly from the VSU Special Collections and Archives.
Dr. Joshua Wright
The VIA included 100 schools across Virginia as a part of the membership. VIA’s principals, teachers and coaches were committed to promoting academic excellence through social and emotional learning, hence they encouraged self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. At its peak, 40,000 students were members of the organization. The names of some member schools commemorate Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Maggie L. Walker, Paul Laurence Dunbar, George Washington Carver, and Ralph Bunche; however, one of the most notable schools was George P. Phenix High School. Hampton Institute student teachers comprised much of the faculty. Phenix also had the only symphonic orchestra among Black high schools in the state. In addition, civil rights leader Charles Sherrod and Mary Jackson, the aerospace engineer portrayed by Janelle Monae in the 2017 film "Hidden Figures," are Phenix alumni.
Three Black professors contributed to the website research, design, and dissemination of information: Drs. Kristal Moore Clemons, Gretchen Generett, and Joshua K. Wright. They presented their findings at the 2019 meetings of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and the American Educational Studies Association. Clemons, currently the national director of the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools, was teaching at VSU at the time. In the fall of 2018, her History and Philosophy of Education (EDAS 700) class at Virginia State University (VSU) conducted seven oral histories with former VIA students. The course was offered as part of the Educational Leadership and Administration doctoral program to guide inquiry into the schools’ historical, philosophical, cultural, educational, and social context. Clemons’s students presented their work at the 12th Annual VSU Graduate Research Symposium.
Dr. Generett, the newly appointed dean of education at Duquesne University, was teaching graduate courses at Duquesne at the time. Unlike Clemons, she was working with a predominantly white student body. Students in her class were required to interview two graduates of VIA schools and conduct contextual research on Virginia State University, the Field Service Division, and the Virginia General Assembly when the interviewee was in school. Carol Schoenecker, a student in the class, reflected on her experience.
From a methodological perspective, the VIA project we did in class was my first venture into qualitative inquiry and analysis--which set the stage and framework for my own qualitative research for my dissertation. On a deeper level, having the opportunity to meet Ms. Lois Stith and hear her story about going to a segregated elementary school until third grade, then integrating a new elementary school in fourth grade was incredibly powerful.
