Back to Stratford: Honoring Arlington’s History Makers
On February 2, 1959, four African American seventh-graders entered Stratford Junior High School, marking the beginning of the end of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s practice of public school segregation. They were the first African American students in Arlington County to attend their neighborhood school rather than a segregated school.
On Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016, three of the four of the original integrating students returned to the Stratford Building, now home to the H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program. Fifty-seven years ago on that day, they had to negotiate a battalion of helmeted police officers protecting the perimeter of the school grounds. This time, they were honored participants in a special evening, “Celebrating Arlington’s History Makers.”
The former students — Michael Jones, Lance Newman and Ronald Deskins — joined a distinguished panel of community members in Stratford Auditorium, where the public joined the County in honoring them and the community effort that helped bring about integration. The other panelists included:
- Alfred O. Taylor, Jr., an educator, civic activist and leader, community historian, and author of the newly published “Bridge Builders of Nauck/Green Valley – Past and Present.”
- Sharon Mondé, an Arlington Public Schools graduate who made her career with APS, serving as a foreign language teacher, Minority Achievement Coordinator, and principal of Jefferson Middle School.
- Carmela Hamm, formerly with Commonwealth Public Broadcasting where she directed broadcasts of the VA State Senate. She also is a documentary filmmaker, and daughter of Dorothy M. Bigelow Hamm, a leader in Arlington’s struggle to integrate its public schools.
- Martha Miller, a former teacher at Stratford Jr. High School during the time of integration and author of her memoir entitled “The First Century.”
- Moderator: Drew Costley, graduate of H-B Woodlawn and UDC and the current News Editor for the Falls Church News Press
Learn more about the event by watching this video of APS’s student event with the panelists. See photographer Greg Embree’s full gallery here.
Photo Gallery
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- Evening screening of the documentary “It’s Just Me…The Integration of the Arlington Public Schools.” Photo by Greg Embree
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- Evening panelists, L to R: Dr. Alfred Taylor, Jr., Sharon Mondé, Carmela Hamm, Lance Newman, Michael Jones, Ronald Deskins, and Martha Miller. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Current H-B Woodlawn students and Principal Casey Robinson meet Lance Newman, Michael Jones, Ronald Deskins, and former Stratford teacher Dr. Herbert Ware. Photo by Greg Embree
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- Michael Jones, Deskins, and Newman outside the Stratford Auditorium that has been dedicated in their honor. Photo by Greg Embree
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- Daytime panelists, L to R: Taylor, Ware, Newman, Jones, Deskins and Hamm. Photo by Greg Embree
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- Audience members for the evening “Community Conversation.” Photo by Greg Embree
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- Plaque dedicating the Stratford Auditorium. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Panelist Sharon Mondé. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Artwork depicting Stratford Junior High School’s first African American students. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Interpretive banners on display in the Auditorium lobby. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Moderator Drew Costley. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Audience members had the opportunity to view copies of the books written by Miller and Taylor. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Jones, Deskins and Newman. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Evening panelists, L to R: Taylor, Mondé., Hamm and Newman. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Taylor, Mondé., and Hamm. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Panelist Carmela Hamm. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Reception following the evening panel. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- The panelists with Arlington County Board and the County Manager. Photo by Blake Tippens
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- Panelists Deskins, Jones and Newman with Arlington County Historic Preservation Coordinator Cynthia Liccese-Torres
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- A.J.E. Davis, left, accompanies students Joyce Bailey, George Nelson and Leslie Hamm Jr., left to right, as they wait in the school office to see the principal of Stratford Jr. High School in Arlington, Va., Sept. 5, 1957. The principal, Claude Richmond, refused admission of the black students today as the fall term begins and told them they would have to attend Hoffman Boston School for Negroes where they had been assigned. (AP Photo)
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- Three police officers stand at the entrance to Stratford Jr. High School as the four black students enrolled in the previously all-white school arrive for classes in Arlington, Va., on Feb. 2, 1959. One of the officers records the scene with a movie camera. Approaching the entrance are, left to right, Lance Newman, 13, Ronald Deskins, 12, Michael Jones, 12, and Gloria Thompson, 12. (AP Photo)
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- Four African American pupils, first to breach the color line in the history of Virginia public schools, leave home to attend classes at Stratford Junior High School in Virginia Feb. 2, 1959. They are, from left, Gloria Thompson, Ronald Deskins, Lance Newman and Michael Jones. (AP Photo)
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- Ronald Deskins, 12, exchanges smiles with his mother, Mrs. Carroll A. Deskins, as he leaves his home in Arlington, Va., on Feb. 2, 1959 to be one of the first African-American children to attend classes in a formerly all-white Virginia public school Stratford Junior High. He joined three other African-American children in entering the rear of the heavily guarded school without disturbance. (AP Photo)
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- African American and white children walk past a policeman as they leave Stratford Junior High School in Arlington, Virginia Feb. 2, 1959, after the first day in integrate classes in Virginia. (AP Photo)
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- A heavy detail of police guards Stratford Junior High School in Arlington, Virginia Feb. 2, 1959. The Police were ready for a riot but wound up with almost nothing to do as Stratford became Virginia’s first racially mixed school. This view is at the rear of the big school before the start of classes. Row of police at center are walking to their assigned positions around the building. (AP Photo/JR)
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- Four African-American children leave Stratford Junior High School in Arlington, Virginia on Feb. 2, 1959, after their first day at the previously all-white school. The African-American children, from left, are: Michael Jones, Gloria Thompson, Lance Newman and Ronald Deskins. They walked to the border of the school grounds where an auto waited for them. (AP Photo/Byron Rollins)
