Once All-Black, Banneker Celebrates Its 60th Anniversary (Loudoun County, VA)
When Janet Wiggins was a student at Loudoun's all-black Banneker Elementary School in the 1950s, she used hand-me-down textbooks from white students. Her school didn't have a library, so she checked out books every couple of weeks from a bookmobile.
Banneker, founded in 1948 in the community of St. Louis near Middleburg and named after African American mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Banneker, was racially integrated in 1968. Today it is the only one of Loudoun's historically black elementary schools still operating. The others were demolished, vacated or converted to other purposes.
On Saturday, a few hundred alumni, students, parents and teachers assembled at Banneker to commemorate the school's 60th anniversary in a celebration that included tours, displays of historical photographs and the performance of an original musical about Benjamin Banneker, the man.
Arthur Lloyd, a 1958 graduate who attended the festivities, said the institution has come a long way.
Read entire article at WaPo
Banneker, founded in 1948 in the community of St. Louis near Middleburg and named after African American mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Banneker, was racially integrated in 1968. Today it is the only one of Loudoun's historically black elementary schools still operating. The others were demolished, vacated or converted to other purposes.
On Saturday, a few hundred alumni, students, parents and teachers assembled at Banneker to commemorate the school's 60th anniversary in a celebration that included tours, displays of historical photographs and the performance of an original musical about Benjamin Banneker, the man.
Arthur Lloyd, a 1958 graduate who attended the festivities, said the institution has come a long way.