The Courageous Four

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools were unconstitutional, but many school systems resisted integration, and nearly ten years later many Virginia schools remained segregated. In 1964, the Prince William County School Board took steps to begin integrating the school system, and before any students were moved between schools, four Black teachers—Zella Brown, Maxine Coleman, Fennie Fitzgerald, and Mary Porter—were relocated from Washington-Reid, Antioch-McCrae, and Jennie Dean Elementary Schools to four formerly White schools. Two of these four teachers were later honored with county schools named for them: Mary G. Porter Traditional School, which opened in 2004, and Fannie W. Fitzgerald Elementary, which opened in 2008.

Dale City, Virginia · United States