White supremacist turns away county officials: 1958
White supremacist John Rathbone (2nd from left on the porch with glasses) turns Arlington county inspectors away from his proposed all-white “model school” July 22, 1958.
The six inspectors are leaving on the right. The two other people with Rathbone are unidentified.
County officials had given notice to Rathbone that he couldn’t open his school without obtaining the correct zoning and having an occupancy permit.
Rathbone sought to open the “George Mason Model School” at 2043 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington under the auspices of the Tenth District Education Corp. as a whites-only school in the event Arlington’s schools were shuttered by the state of Virginia to resist de-segregation.
Rathbone’s group posted a sign outside the building that read, “Open, Come in and Register. George Mason Grammer and Academic High School.” Note the spelling of “grammer” on the sign.
Arlington was under federal court order to admit four Black students to Stratford Junior High in February.
Virginia state law required the closure of any public school system in the state that admitted Black students to whites-only schools.
Rathbone was one of the founders of the Arlington chapter of the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberty in 1954 that was organized in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions holding that segregation was illegal in public schools.
Rathbone tried to fight the zoning decision saying that the building should be considered a house and not a school and that a 1956 Virginia state law granted exceptions to private schools.
The school never opened and the courts voided the Virginia law requiring the state to close a school system that admitted Black students to white schools.
The four Black students were admitted to Stratford without public disturbances in Feb. 1959, marking the beginning of the end for Jim Crow schools in Arlington. However it would take 20 years for the last Arlington school to be integrated.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskWK3q68
Photo by Gus Chinn. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
White supremacist turns away county officials: 1958
White supremacist John Rathbone (2nd from left on the porch with glasses) turns Arlington county inspectors away from his proposed all-white “model school” July 22, 1958.
The six inspectors are leaving on the right. The two other people with Rathbone are unidentified.
County officials had given notice to Rathbone that he couldn’t open his school without obtaining the correct zoning and having an occupancy permit.
Rathbone sought to open the “George Mason Model School” at 2043 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington under the auspices of the Tenth District Education Corp. as a whites-only school in the event Arlington’s schools were shuttered by the state of Virginia to resist de-segregation.
Rathbone’s group posted a sign outside the building that read, “Open, Come in and Register. George Mason Grammer and Academic High School.” Note the spelling of “grammer” on the sign.
Arlington was under federal court order to admit four Black students to Stratford Junior High in February.
Virginia state law required the closure of any public school system in the state that admitted Black students to whites-only schools.
Rathbone was one of the founders of the Arlington chapter of the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberty in 1954 that was organized in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions holding that segregation was illegal in public schools.
Rathbone tried to fight the zoning decision saying that the building should be considered a house and not a school and that a 1956 Virginia state law granted exceptions to private schools.
The school never opened and the courts voided the Virginia law requiring the state to close a school system that admitted Black students to white schools.
The four Black students were admitted to Stratford without public disturbances in Feb. 1959, marking the beginning of the end for Jim Crow schools in Arlington. However it would take 20 years for the last Arlington school to be integrated.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskWK3q68
Photo by Gus Chinn. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.