Opening Doors: A Landmark of African-American History

As Charlottesville looks forward to celebrating 250 years as a city and we honor Black History Month this February, it is fascinating to learn about how we have developed as a community through the Jefferson School’s history. The Jefferson School has served as the premier educational and social center for generations of African Americans in Charlottesville.

The legacy of Jefferson School and Carver Recreation Center is a remarkable one. A familiar landmark in the Starr Hill neighborhood in downtown Charlottesville and on the National Register of Historic Places, the Jefferson School represents a spirit of tenacity and dedication to the highest national ideals of equality and fairness. The school served for nearly 150 years as the flagship for bringing about racial integration in Charlottesville in the 1960s and as a center of learning for African Americans since The Civil War.

The history of this large two-story brick building begins in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, when the New England Freedmen’s Aid Society sent a teacher, Anna Gardner, to Charlottesville. Her mission was to open a school for former slaves. She named the school, “Jefferson School” after the nation’s third president, Thomas Jefferson, whom she admired. 

Over the years, the school grew as demand increased and housed a variety of grades. The present structure, located at 233 Fourth Street, was built in four phases, beginning in 1926 after members of the community had petitioned the Superintendent and the City School Board for a high school for the city’s African American youth. Jefferson High School was one of only ten African American high schools in Virginia at that time. Ms. Otelia (Gilmore) Brackett, who attended the Jefferson School in 1945 for tenth grade, said, “I found the school to be well established. The teachers were prepared to teach the students and I made a host of friends.”

The courage and persistence of Charlottesville’s black community and the NAACP led to the desegregation of Charlottesville public schools, which began in 1959. In the 1965-66 school year, Jefferson School became a junior high school serving black and white students, demonstrating that the City of Charlottesville was complying with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

Jefferson School closed in 2002, while the adjacent Carver Recreation Center continued to operate as a city recreational facility. Today, the City of Charlottesville furthers its commitment to the renovation and redevelopment of the school with the Jefferson School City Center project, which will include an African-American Heritage Center, a JABA Senior Community Center and a cafe, and more. Carver Recreation Center is getting a facelift, too. With plans to open in Fall 2012, this project marks the coming together of Charlottesville’s citizens to honor and use this important structure, which is a testament to the strength of the human spirit. 

Ida (Johnson) Lewis, who attended the Jefferson School for Grades 6-11, graduated in 1946 and is on The Jefferson School Alumni Committee. She couldn’t be more thrilled about the preservation of her alma mater. “When we walked through that school, we could hear our friends call, we could hear the students shuffling through. That school is just like a part of your family. We couldn’t let it go. It’s a part of this community and it means so much to our African American community that it’s here to stay.”

Source: Jefferson School National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, August 15, 2005; Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society; City of Charlottesville.