The schools in Fredericksburg were segregated, and every aspect of black students’ experience of school was inferior to the white students. Their schools were often in disrepair, their books and lessons worn and incomplete, and good quality extracurricular activities were non-existent. The black students decided enough was enough, and they decided to protest their class graduation.
In June 1950, the Walker Grant High School’s graduating class refused to hold graduating exercises in Fredericksburg Charles St. Community Center because they weren’t allowed to use the front entrance. The black students were tired of the inequality, so they decided to take a stand. They protested in front of the center. They refused to go through the back entrance. They then marched in cap and gowns down to Shiloh Old Site Baptist Church on Sophia Street, where the graduation exercises were conducted[1]. This was a great sense of tension because this was a sign of resistance and intolerance to the school segregation laws in Fredericksburg. This event would become a catalyst for other actions towards integration for black students.
The black students of Fredericksburg decided to take a stand, and they decided to use non-violence protest to fight segregation laws. They wanted to fight for their right to a good education, and their right to be equal like the white students.
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Works Cited:
[1]. “School Integration & Civil Rights Timelines.” Stafford County Schools. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.
W. (n.d.). [Walker-Grant School. Built in 1935, this was the first Black high school in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.]. Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Walker-Grant_School.JPG