The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center in Charlottesville is decorated with exhibits that tell the history of one of the city’s first schools for Black students through alumni and community members — but there’s a gap in the records.
That’s where historic student files from Charlottesville City Schools come in.
Newly received records from CCS spanning from 1909 to 1965 will help the center craft its Pride Overcomes Prejudice exhibit, which tells the story of the Jefferson School.
“The 1919 period is a period that we don't know a lot about. So you can imagine that as historians, we're like, ‘What, wait? We need to see what's in these folders!’” said Andrea Douglas, the center’s executive director.
Superintendent Royal Gurley said CCS located the files this school year while preparing to digitize its archived student records.
The Jefferson School and Charlottesville schools have worked together to write curriculum on local history since 2011.
“This moment is very profound in the sense that it is helping to illuminate the stories of Black education here in Charlottesville City Schools,” said Gurley.
Douglas said her team at the Center for Local Knowledge, the research arm of JSAAHC, is taking careful steps to follow best practices when reviewing student records.
Douglas said CLK wants to be the best stewards possible for people in Charlottesville whose records are in the files, who might not yet know their information is included.
“The thing that people don't understand about history is how it lives with us every single day, all right? And 1919 is not that far away,” she said.
Douglas said she believes the files — which contain grades, attendance, and family information — will help her team better understand daily activities and daily life for Black students in past decades.
“We know them through a few documents, but we have not yet learned them as deeply as these objects allow us to really dig in,” she explained.
Douglas added: “I can't imagine, having not seen them yet, exactly what they hold. But I like a good story, and so I'm pretty excited about it.”
