website: www.pacts-ukhs.org email: [email protected]
PRINCESS ANNE COUNTY TRAINING SCHOOL/UNION KEMPSVILLE HIGH SCHOOL
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
1925 - 1969
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
1925 - 1969
Under the stimulus of an incentive fund given by the state, the number of high schools in Virginia multiplied in the early 20th century. By 1912, three high schools in Princess Anne County--Oceana, Kempsville, and Creeds--had opened for whites. At the same time, there was no educational facility in the county for blacks beyond seventh grade. Some could afford to pay the $35.00 tuition to send their children to Booker T. Washington, the black high school in Norfolk, but others could not.
The African American community mobilized to rectify the fact that there was not a black high school in Princess Anne County. Parents, teachers, pastors, and patrons of public education assembled in Seatack on October 26, 1925, “to discuss ways and means of raising money to build a training school in Princess Anne County for colored children.” Those in attendance organized the Princess Anne County Training School (PACTS) Association and elected the division school superintendent, J. H. Carroll, as president; Mary J. Whitehurst as vice-president; and Mary E. Gray as secretary-treasurer.
In 1926, the PACTS Association appointed a committee consisting of Millie J. McPherson, L. H. Brinkley, Jr., and James T. C. Davis to purchase four acres of property near Euclid for a black high school, but the Princess Anne County School Board made no effort to build on the site. In its zeal to offer high school classes to African American students, between 1934 and 1938, the association added grades eight through eleven to Union Kempsville School. It was a black elementary school on the property of Union Baptist Church on South Boulevard in the vicinity of present-day Mt. Trashmore.
In the spring of 1938, the first black seniors graduated high school in Princess Anne County. These were the 19 students who began their secondary education at Union Kempsville in 1934 with Mary L. Tuston as principal. They never occupied the training school, but were held in high esteem and designated as the first graduating class of PACTS.
Upon receiving school board approval, PACTS, the first black high school in the county, opened in the fall of 1938 near Euclid which is, today, at the intersection of Cleveland Street and Witchduck Road. A “training school” was a secondary school for blacks that endorsed a curriculum of agricultural and industrial education. The school infrastructure included four classrooms, a principal’s office, a library, and an assembly room. It was void of student desks, a cafeteria, and indoor lavatories. There were no science labs, and a dictionary was the only book in the library. A second two-room building was added in 1939 for agricultural and home economics classes. The original faculty consisted of Thaddeus C. Smith, Sr., principal and teacher; Hattie L. Goodman, teacher; Bettie F. Williams, teacher; and Harry L. Robinson, teacher. Despite the meager beginnings of PACTS, its students, staff, parents, and patrons were encouraged; and by 1941, the Virginia State Department of Education granted the school full accreditation.
Joseph V. Boykin replaced Mr. Smith as PACTS principal in 1946. On a recommendation from the Virginia Department of Education, in 1949, four new classrooms, a cafeteria, indoor lavatory facilities, and a heating system were added to PACTS. According to Princess Anne County records, in 1950, a 15-acre site adjacent to the training school was purchased to build a new high school for Negro children. The school was completed in 1953 and featured 14 classrooms, a library, a cafeteria, a 526-seat auditorium, a gymnasium, a home economics facility, an industrial arts area, a band room, a science room, a principal’s office, and boys’ and girls' restrooms.
The early 1960s was a pivotal time in African American history with the onset of the civil rights movement. The “we shall overcome” era impelled black citizens of Princess Anne to think differently about the only black high school in the county being called a “training” school. After discussion and compromise, the school board voted to rename PACTS as Union Kempsville High School, effective at the start of the 1961-1962 school year.
On January 4, 1962, residents of Princess Anne County and the city of Virginia Beach voted to merge. Princess Anne ceased to exist, and Virginia Beach emerged as “The World’s Largest Resort City.” At a Virginia Beach school board meeting on January 19, 1965, Superintendent Frank W. Cox brought a requirement from the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to the attention of the board. It was a federal mandate for school desegregation and it initiated "freedom of choice" in Virginia Beach. The desegregation plan presented by Superintendent E. E. Brickell to the school board on January 21, 1969, called for the elimination of Union Kempsville High School. The commencement exercises on June 12, 1969, conferred diplomas upon the school's last graduating class and marked the closing of the first and only black high school in Virginia Beach.
The African American community mobilized to rectify the fact that there was not a black high school in Princess Anne County. Parents, teachers, pastors, and patrons of public education assembled in Seatack on October 26, 1925, “to discuss ways and means of raising money to build a training school in Princess Anne County for colored children.” Those in attendance organized the Princess Anne County Training School (PACTS) Association and elected the division school superintendent, J. H. Carroll, as president; Mary J. Whitehurst as vice-president; and Mary E. Gray as secretary-treasurer.
In 1926, the PACTS Association appointed a committee consisting of Millie J. McPherson, L. H. Brinkley, Jr., and James T. C. Davis to purchase four acres of property near Euclid for a black high school, but the Princess Anne County School Board made no effort to build on the site. In its zeal to offer high school classes to African American students, between 1934 and 1938, the association added grades eight through eleven to Union Kempsville School. It was a black elementary school on the property of Union Baptist Church on South Boulevard in the vicinity of present-day Mt. Trashmore.
In the spring of 1938, the first black seniors graduated high school in Princess Anne County. These were the 19 students who began their secondary education at Union Kempsville in 1934 with Mary L. Tuston as principal. They never occupied the training school, but were held in high esteem and designated as the first graduating class of PACTS.
Upon receiving school board approval, PACTS, the first black high school in the county, opened in the fall of 1938 near Euclid which is, today, at the intersection of Cleveland Street and Witchduck Road. A “training school” was a secondary school for blacks that endorsed a curriculum of agricultural and industrial education. The school infrastructure included four classrooms, a principal’s office, a library, and an assembly room. It was void of student desks, a cafeteria, and indoor lavatories. There were no science labs, and a dictionary was the only book in the library. A second two-room building was added in 1939 for agricultural and home economics classes. The original faculty consisted of Thaddeus C. Smith, Sr., principal and teacher; Hattie L. Goodman, teacher; Bettie F. Williams, teacher; and Harry L. Robinson, teacher. Despite the meager beginnings of PACTS, its students, staff, parents, and patrons were encouraged; and by 1941, the Virginia State Department of Education granted the school full accreditation.
Joseph V. Boykin replaced Mr. Smith as PACTS principal in 1946. On a recommendation from the Virginia Department of Education, in 1949, four new classrooms, a cafeteria, indoor lavatory facilities, and a heating system were added to PACTS. According to Princess Anne County records, in 1950, a 15-acre site adjacent to the training school was purchased to build a new high school for Negro children. The school was completed in 1953 and featured 14 classrooms, a library, a cafeteria, a 526-seat auditorium, a gymnasium, a home economics facility, an industrial arts area, a band room, a science room, a principal’s office, and boys’ and girls' restrooms.
The early 1960s was a pivotal time in African American history with the onset of the civil rights movement. The “we shall overcome” era impelled black citizens of Princess Anne to think differently about the only black high school in the county being called a “training” school. After discussion and compromise, the school board voted to rename PACTS as Union Kempsville High School, effective at the start of the 1961-1962 school year.
On January 4, 1962, residents of Princess Anne County and the city of Virginia Beach voted to merge. Princess Anne ceased to exist, and Virginia Beach emerged as “The World’s Largest Resort City.” At a Virginia Beach school board meeting on January 19, 1965, Superintendent Frank W. Cox brought a requirement from the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to the attention of the board. It was a federal mandate for school desegregation and it initiated "freedom of choice" in Virginia Beach. The desegregation plan presented by Superintendent E. E. Brickell to the school board on January 21, 1969, called for the elimination of Union Kempsville High School. The commencement exercises on June 12, 1969, conferred diplomas upon the school's last graduating class and marked the closing of the first and only black high school in Virginia Beach.
The Last Walk: PACTS/UKHS 1938-1969
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