Loudoun Schools Issue Apology To Black Residents For Segregation

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — Loudoun County Public Schools issued a formal apology to the county’s Black community for its operation of segregated schools and the lasting impact that the racist actions of county leaders had on Black students and Black residents in the county.

Loudoun County was one of the last school systems in the nation to desegregate its schools. In early 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional and that public schools should integrate “with all deliberate speed.”

A few months later, on Aug. 6, 1956, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to stop funding public schools if the federal government forced integration. By the late 1960s, a U.S. federal court ordered white Loudoun County leaders to fully integrate all schools by the 1968-1969 school year.

Although there are no monuments erected in Loudoun County to honor people who fought against segregation, Loudoun County Public Schools emphasized that it is important to remember the county's history and highlight how local politicians fought long and hard to maintain segregation.

"We, the Loudoun County School Board, the Administration of Loudoun County Public Schools, and the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors sincerely apologize for the operation of segregated schools in Loudoun County and for the negative impact, damage and disadvantages to Black students and families that were caused by decisions made by the Loudoun County School Board, LCPS Administration, and the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors," stated the letter of apology, which was released Friday.

LCPS also highlighted how "the additional effort required and resources provided by the Black community to obtain an equal education created hardships to which other community members were not subjected. Black people were denied rights and equal treatment."

Among state's efforts to erase history from schools, textbooks used in Loudoun County schools, for example, did not include the history of African Americans from the end of the Civil War through the closing of the 19th century, the school system said.

LCPS thanked many organizations for fighting for remembering the history of the county and contributing to the drafting of the letter by providing LCPS feedback on specific topics that could not go unaddressed.

The Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee, the Loudoun Douglass High School Alumni Association, the Black History Committee – Friends of Thomas Balch Library, and the Edwin Washington Project assisted with the drafting of the letter. The LCPS also thanked the Loudoun Branch of the NAACP, the Loudoun Freedom Center, Loudoun Diversity Council, Excellent Options, and other organizations whose work led to the apology and a focus on the history of racism in the county.

"As one organization shared, LCPS must continually assess the status of racial equity in the school system and correct its past transgressions as it pertains to race," LCPS said in the letter. "Although we recognize that we have yet to fully correct or eradicate matters of racial inequality, we hope that issuing this apology with genuine remorse is a valuable step followed by additional actions, including demonstrable policy changes as outlined in both the Comprehensive Equity Plan and the Action Plan to Combat Systemic Racism."

LCPS said it is committed to additional actions that sustain and accelerate its efforts to improve equity and eliminate racism from its schools. The Loudoun school system is the third largest school division in the state.

The formal apology was accompanied by a video presentation that describes the history of segregation in the county's public schools.