Stratford Junior High School

After World War II, Arlington experienced rapid growth. An influx of residents led to large infrastructure projects across the county, especially in schools. Built in 1950 in the International Style, Stratford Junior High School was one of four new middle schools constructed at the time. Located in the Cherrydale neighborhood, just off Langston Boulevard, Stratford would become one of the most historic schools in Virginia. (NPS)

Stratford Junior High School in 1959 (Library of Congress)

DESEGREGATION HISTORY

In 1954, the US Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education ended school segregation. This decision was unpopular across the Jim Crow South where states, including Virginia, still practiced racial segregation. US Senator from Virginia, Harry F. Byrd, campaigned for “massive resistance” against desegregation, urging no compromise on integrated public schools. Unfortunately, this led to continued segregation in Virginia through most of the 1950s. (AH) Here in Arlington, in 1957, Stratford Junior High turned away three African-American students who attempted to enroll in the school, including the son of Dorothy Hamm, the Arlington desegregation activist after whom the school is currently named. (APL)

A.J.E. Davis, left, accompanies students Joyce Bailey, George Nelson, and Leslie Hamm Jr., to Stratford Junior High in an attempt to register, Sept. 5, 1957 (Photo courtesy of AP Photo).

Local activism and continued litigation from residents and the NAACP brought needed change when the US District Court ruled that Arlington must admit Black students to segregated White schools for the 1958-59 school year. That decision was followed , in January 1959, by the Virginia Supreme Court finding school segregation unconstitutional. The “massive resistance” was over. (APL) That year, Stratford Junior High became the first school in the Commonwealth of Virginia to desegregate.

In February 1959, four Black students from the Hall’s Hill/High View Park neighborhood, Gloria Thompson, Lance Newman, Michael Jones, and Ronald Deskins, walked through the doors and began attending classes in the formerly all-White Stratford. (AH) According to the National Park Service, this event “signified the end of massive resistance in the Commonwealth of Virginia and dealt a powerful blow to the opponents of racial equality nationwide.” (NPS) Though a police guard escorted them, the day passed peacefully, causing one Arlington County Board member, David Krupsaw, to pen an article about the event titled “The Day Nothing Happened.” (Krupsaw) Many of the African-American students who attended the first years of desegregation at Stratford Junior High, including People & Places contributors Michael Jones (first year) and Saundra Green (second year), still live in our community today.

The first four African American students to attend classes at Stratford Junior High on Feb. 2, 1959. From left, Gloria Thompson, Ronald Deskins, Lance Newman, and Michael Jones. (Photo courtesy of AP Photo)

MEMORIES OF THE MOMENT

The following content comes from the LBA People & Places oral history interviews with Michael Jones and Saundra Green in 2024. 

Michael Jones grew up in Hall’s Hill, one of seven kids. He attended all-Black local schools in Hall’s Hill until Junior High, when he became one of the first African American students to integrate into Virginia schools at Stratford. He is not sure why his parents got involved with school desegregation since his mom was pregnant with his younger sister at the time and seemed a little busy. The decision for him to integrate into a White school wasn’t something that he remembers discussing or being a part of; his parents just sat him down and told him that was the way it was going to be. He figures he was selected because he was a pretty good student, something he attributes to the skilled teachers at Langston Elementary.

Hall’s Hill was a tight-knit and organized community when Michael grew up. Everyone worked together for the benefit of the community. He remembers that planning for desegregation had been going on in the Hall’s Hill community during his youth. Locals would meet at local spaces like the Mount Salvation and Calloway churches to plan local activism and prepare for eventual desegregation. As desegregation became imminent, local leaders again met at these churches to train potential students on how they believed the kids should act around White students so they could integrate smoothly into the schools. Ironically, Michael remembers most of this training being for naught because when he got to Stratford the White kids and the Black kids all acted the same - like kids. Michael remembers about 30 kids going through the training and applying to integrate into the schools. The US District Court ruling limited that number to four for the first class at Stratford; they were the youngest four of the group. 

In the Fall of 1958, Michael had already started his first year in junior high at Hoffman-Boston, the all-Black middle school. Junior High is a significant change for any kid that age, and Michael remembers that year as just being a “swirl” of changes. In February of 1959, he and his three classmates transferred to Stratford, but he doesn’t remember being too worried about it because he wasn’t going alone. He didn’t realize at the time how significant the moment was because it was just another change to him.

Worried about possible protests, one of the fathers took the kids to school on their first day. Michael remembers police at the school, but their arrival was uneventful. They first met with the Principal Carl Richmond who walked them through what to expect at the school. The four students were then separated into two groups. He and Gloria had all their classes together, while Ronnie and Lance attended different classes together.

The four students (Michael Jones on the right) enter Stratford Junior High in February 1959 (Photo courtesy of Arlington Public Library).

To Michael, Stratford was just school. He treated it like a job, working the hours and returning to Hall’s Hill to have fun with his friends. He doesn’t remember any issues that occurred during his first year with the students or teachers, but the group would occasionally face racial slurs from some students while walking in the hallways between classes. He doesn’t remember the experience at school being bad; it was just a year that they all got through. 

Michael is thankful that his experience occurred in Arlington rather than in a smaller town in Southern Virginia. Northern Virginia, even then, included people from all over the country who had moved to work in or around the federal government. It was a more diverse and progressive community, and Michael remembers people working together to make desegregation happen. He doesn’t remember seeing the kinds of protest you saw elsewhere in the South; the whole process in Arlington was more peaceful. He knows that the desegregation of Stratford made the national news back then, but it was a more positive story than elsewhere. Michael thinks that it helped to put Arlington on the map.

Ronald Deskins and Lance Newman walk home from Stratford in 1959. (Photo courtesy of DC Public School Library.)

The following school year, lifelong Hall’s Hill resident and community activist Saundra Green started attending Stratford Junior High. She remembers her time there being “OK.” She found the education to be good, but it was no better than what she would have gotten had she stayed at Hoffman-Boston. Saundra had very few issues at Stratford, but she does remember always being glad to get home to Hall’s Hill.  

One thing she remembers not liking about the school was everything she couldn’t do. While the classes were integrated, extracurricular activities were off-limits to Black students. They were not allowed to play sports, become cheerleaders, or join clubs. Saundra had grown up singing in the church choir at Calloway Church and remembers being disappointed at not being able to audition for the singing groups at Stratford. Much like Michael, she would just go to school and then come home. 

She also remembers how the community worked to break down racial barriers. Stratford would not allow integrated school dances, so Mount Olive Church stepped up to throw dances where everyone was welcome. Sandra remembers everyone coming to those dances, “Black, White, everybody.” 

STRATFORD TODAY

From 1978 to 2019, the Stratford Junior High building housed Arlington’s H-B Woodlawn program, a student and teacher-designed program where students have increased input in their educational path. In 2019, the building reopened as the Dorothy Hamm Middle School. The namesake is fitting; Dorothy Hamm’s legal actions are credited with the successful desegregation of Stratford Junior High. (DHM)  

Dorothy Hamm grew up in Northern Virginia, settling in Arlington after her marriage in 1950. In 1956, she and her husband became plaintiffs in the first civil action to integrate the Arlington Public School system. When there was no movement on the civil action, Hamm took her oldest son to enroll at Stratford Junior High School; he was part of the group of three Black students who were turned away in 1957. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Hamm continued her legal actions as the plaintiff in multiple civil actions to remove racial discrimination from Arlington schools. Additionally, she fought against poll taxes, racial designation requirements on government forms and voter registration, and segregation in local theaters. She also served as an officer for elections in Arlington for 27 years. (APL)

Stratford Junior High School was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register in 2003 and on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. In 2016, the Arlington County Board designated the school a local Historic District. Today, historic markers and displays throughout the campus explain the desegregation movement and establish the vital contribution that Stratford Junior High has made to the cultural heritage of the Langston corridor.

Dorthy Hamm Middle School in 2021 showing a display of the four original students who integrated into Stratford Junior High (Photo courtesy of the Historical Marker Database).

WATCH THE STRATFORD STORIES DOCUMENTARY

WATCH THE STRATFORD JR. HIGH INTEGRATION 65th ANNIVERSARY

WATCH AN EVENING TO CELEBRATE ARLINGTON’S HISTORY MAKERS 

VIEW THE NATIONAL REGISTER REGISTRATION FORM FOR STRATFORD JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL