CONTENT WARNING
Materials in the Library of Virginia’s collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; and gender and sexual orientation.
Context
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, Virginia resisted desegregating its schools for years. One tactic was the creation of a state Pupil Placement Board to assign (or place) students in public schools, a task formerly under the control of local school boards. In this way the Commonwealth could limit how many Black or multiracial students would be enrolled in previously all-white schools. This document is the application submitted in 1963 by Thelma L. Branham, a member of the Monacan tribe, to place her daughter in Amherst Elementary School.
Like other Indigenous Virginians, members of the Monacan nation occupied a tenuous space in the racial hierarchy of Virginia. When the General Assembly created the segregated public school system in 1870, Virginia Indians were left out of the system entirely. Some could “pass” as white and attend white schools, but they were generally expected to attend the Black schools established at the time. Like other Indigenous citizens, Monacans reacted by creating their own institutions. In 1924, with the passage of the Racial Integrity Act, Virginia Indians like the Monacan were virtually erased from public records, as the law deemed everyone in Virginia a Black person if they had one drop of nonwhite blood.
The Monacans built a one-room schoolhouse for their children on Bear Mountain, in Amherst County. This school served children through seventh grade. Public officials treated the Monacan school as they did other nonwhite schools; it received less financial support and had part-time teachers supplied by the county on an irregular basis. In 1907, the Episcopal Church established a mission there. The diocese supplied full-time teachers for the school, which was enlarged to two rooms and was eventually electrified. However, Monacan students wanting classes beyond eighth grade had to take them through correspondence classes or leave the state to attend high school. Although the school board began supplying full-time teachers by 1940, this 1953 article ("Sanitation Report Made") in the Amherst New Era-Progress reported that the Monacan school was one of many in the county in terrible condition, suffering from overcrowding and sanitation problems due to its lack of running water. Most of the white schools in the county—all but two—were deemed adequate, but sixteen Black schools and the Monacan school were not as a result of neglect by the local school board.
Monacans were subject to the same prejudicial laws as Black citizens, including the state's massive resistance to desegregation. In 1963, Amherst County tried to build a new, larger school with a high school for the Monacans, which was one of the ways the state tried to maintain segregation. Instead, Bear Mountain Mission School closed and Monacan students had to navigate the complicated and lengthy process created by the Pupil Placement Board to attend white schools. This 1964 article ("4-Room Addition Approved By Board") in the New Era-Progress explained where the students were transfered to and describes the Monacan students with the offensive term "issue." Originating as term for free Black people during slavery, "free issue" was later used by Walter Placker, State Board of Health Registrar and architect of the 1924 law, to describe Indigenous Virginians, who he viewed as vastly inferior to whites.
It was not until 1970 that all Amherst county schools integrated. The Bear Mountain Mission school is now the Monacan Nation’s Museum.
Citations: County Transfers, Amherst-Approved, 1963 (box 40), Records of the Virginia Pupil Placement Board, 1957-1966, Accession 26517, Library of Virginia; "Sanitation Report on Schools Made," Amherst New Era-Progress, Oct. 29, 1953; "Four-Room Addition Approved by Board," Amherst New Era-Progress, July 9, 1964, Library of Virginia.
Related Document Bank entry:
The New Virginia Law to Preserve Racial Integrity, March 1924
Learn more about the Monacan Nation online at Encyclopedia Virginia.
Learn more about the Pupil Placement Board records in The UncommonWealth blog.
Like other Indigenous Virginians, members of the Monacan nation occupied a tenuous space in the racial hierarchy of Virginia. When the General Assembly created the segregated public school system in 1870, Virginia Indians were left out of the system entirely. Some could “pass” as white and attend white schools, but they were generally expected to attend the Black schools established at the time. Like other Indigenous citizens, Monacans reacted by creating their own institutions. In 1924, with the passage of the Racial Integrity Act, Virginia Indians like the Monacan were virtually erased from public records, as the law deemed everyone in Virginia a Black person if they had one drop of nonwhite blood.
The Monacans built a one-room schoolhouse for their children on Bear Mountain, in Amherst County. This school served children through seventh grade. Public officials treated the Monacan school as they did other nonwhite schools; it received less financial support and had part-time teachers supplied by the county on an irregular basis. In 1907, the Episcopal Church established a mission there. The diocese supplied full-time teachers for the school, which was enlarged to two rooms and was eventually electrified. However, Monacan students wanting classes beyond eighth grade had to take them through correspondence classes or leave the state to attend high school. Although the school board began supplying full-time teachers by 1940, this 1953 article ("Sanitation Report Made") in the Amherst New Era-Progress reported that the Monacan school was one of many in the county in terrible condition, suffering from overcrowding and sanitation problems due to its lack of running water. Most of the white schools in the county—all but two—were deemed adequate, but sixteen Black schools and the Monacan school were not as a result of neglect by the local school board.
Monacans were subject to the same prejudicial laws as Black citizens, including the state's massive resistance to desegregation. In 1963, Amherst County tried to build a new, larger school with a high school for the Monacans, which was one of the ways the state tried to maintain segregation. Instead, Bear Mountain Mission School closed and Monacan students had to navigate the complicated and lengthy process created by the Pupil Placement Board to attend white schools. This 1964 article ("4-Room Addition Approved By Board") in the New Era-Progress explained where the students were transfered to and describes the Monacan students with the offensive term "issue." Originating as term for free Black people during slavery, "free issue" was later used by Walter Placker, State Board of Health Registrar and architect of the 1924 law, to describe Indigenous Virginians, who he viewed as vastly inferior to whites.
It was not until 1970 that all Amherst county schools integrated. The Bear Mountain Mission school is now the Monacan Nation’s Museum.
Citations: County Transfers, Amherst-Approved, 1963 (box 40), Records of the Virginia Pupil Placement Board, 1957-1966, Accession 26517, Library of Virginia; "Sanitation Report on Schools Made," Amherst New Era-Progress, Oct. 29, 1953; "Four-Room Addition Approved by Board," Amherst New Era-Progress, July 9, 1964, Library of Virginia.
Related Document Bank entry:
The New Virginia Law to Preserve Racial Integrity, March 1924
Learn more about the Monacan Nation online at Encyclopedia Virginia.
Learn more about the Pupil Placement Board records in The UncommonWealth blog.
Standards
VS.8, VS.10, VS.11, USII.2, USII.5, USII.8, VUS.8, VUS.16
Suggested Questions
Preview Activity
Scan It: Scan the articles for information. What schools were described as inadequate? Which ones were not? Why do you think some of the schools were in worse condition than others?
Post Activities
Analyze: Read the newspaper articles and the pupil placement application. Why did Mrs. Branham want her daughter to go to a different school? What problems did she point out? What opportunities did she see elsewhere? How did the reports from the school sanitation committee support her arguments about the mission school?
Current Connection: How would you characterize the condition of your school, and why? What could you do about it?
Scan It: Scan the articles for information. What schools were described as inadequate? Which ones were not? Why do you think some of the schools were in worse condition than others?
Post Activities
Analyze: Read the newspaper articles and the pupil placement application. Why did Mrs. Branham want her daughter to go to a different school? What problems did she point out? What opportunities did she see elsewhere? How did the reports from the school sanitation committee support her arguments about the mission school?
Current Connection: How would you characterize the condition of your school, and why? What could you do about it?