VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — I recently visited the Princess Anne County Training School / Union Kempsville High School Museum to to learn more about the history of Virginia Beach public schools.
"The history behind this museum is to show what the African American community had to go through in order to educate the children" says historical interpreter Maria Faircloth. "There was no high school here for African American students during the Jim Crow Era."
In 1938, the Princess Anne County Training School opened, the first black high school in what is now Virginia Beach. Faircloth says, "It was a grassroots movement from the community here in Virginia Beach, they knew, and they understood that education was the key.
The educational opportunity wasn’t the same as the white high schools in the county. The Princess Anne County Training School had used books, secondhand typewriters, and no indoor running water.
"At the beginning of the day, they would have to go and fill a bucket with drinkable water, bring it in and use a ladle. There were no cups. So children were taught by the teachers and their parents to make a paper cup, fill it with water, and then you would have to throw it away."
In the 1960s there was an important curriculum shift from agricultural and industrial education to academics and a name change to Union Kempsville High School.
"Many of these alumni, they can recall their wonderful experience that they had here because they were able to make something out of themselves and they all knew that education was the key to better the situation," Faircloth says.
The Princess Anne County Training School / Union Kempsville High School Museum is located on Cleveland Street, inside the Renaissance Academy. The museum is open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.
