Loudoun Schools To Issue Apology For Resistance To Integration

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — Loudoun County Public Schools are making plans to apologize for the fact that Loudoun County was one of the last school systems in the nation to desegregate its schools. The formal apology, which will be issued in September, will be accompanied by a video presentation that describes the history of segregation in the county's public schools, the school system said Friday.

Loudoun schools also will look at the potential community impact of the apology from the perspective of Black citizens of the county who are directly connected to the school system. Friday marked the 57th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech delivered to civil rights marchers gathered around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

“Even as Americans drew inspiration from Dr. King’s call for unity and equal treatment under the law, Loudoun County actively resisted the legal and moral requirement to integrate its schools for over a decade, following more than a century of documented inequities between schools serving white students and those serving Black students,” Dr. Eric Williams, superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools, said in a statement.

Williams said Loudoun County schools "can’t erase history, but we can acknowledge and apologize for this institution’s role in sustaining a system that disrespected Loudoun’s Black citizens and devalued their human potential.”

The Loudoun County School Board has invited the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to participate in the formal apology. The agenda for the board of supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 1 includes official consideration of joining the Loudoun County School Board in a formal statement of apology for the operation of segregated schools in Loudoun County.

The Board of Supervisors' agenda item includes the statement that “Board Leadership polled the Board regarding their interest in joining the School Board in the issuance of the apology and determined that the Board’s interest is positive.”

LCPS commits 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.