Black Lives Next Door – Eleven Oaks Elementary School

Author(s): Rachel Amon, Kyle Buckner, Sydney Hardy, Alexis Massenburg, Sira Thiam

Mentor(s): George Oberle, University Libraries; LaNitra Berger, Office of Fellowships and African and African American Studies; Benedict Carton, History and Art History; Anthony Guidone, Anne Dobberteen, Graduate Assistants

https://youtu.be/9KfjlHABqKo

Abstract

The Black Lives Next Door Project is focused on locating Black geographies, empowering Black voices, and uncovering the history of the Black community in Fairfax County, Virginia. The focus of this research is Eleven Oaks Elementary School. Even though the school operated from 1955 to 1968, it was still an important piece of Black geography. The scope of the project is to discover the history of the Eleven Oaks school, learn more about the student experience, create a list of faculty present, understand the desegregation process, and map the Black geographies around Eleven Oaks. The school was the pinnacle of the Black community when it was first built because there were seven classrooms instead of just one, but the school still lacked funding and resources. Teachers were heavily relied on to support students and provide resources to compensate for the lack of food, books, and other materials. This fostered a warm and supportive culture at Eleven Oaks, but community members recognized its shortcomings. It was also one of the last schools in Fairfax to be integrated, so the desegregation process was lengthy. 

Video Transcript

1 00:00:01.319 –> 00:00:12.120 Alexis Massenburg: Hello everybody, my name is Alexis Massenburg i’m a junior global affairs major at George mason university and I am one of the researchers on the black lives next door summer impacting research project. 2 00:00:12.540 –> 00:00:25.920 Alexis Massenburg: And so what I am sharing my screen is the Omeka website that we created and it kind of just has all the aspects of this project on the website, and so you can scroll through and look at. 3 00:00:26.640 –> 00:00:36.990 Alexis Massenburg: different aspects of this project, different students research and so i’ll be getting to that, I just wanted to give everyone an overview of what this project is about and what my specific research is about. 4 00:00:37.620 –> 00:00:44.790 Alexis Massenburg: Before I go through the website, so the black lives next door summer impact team research project. 5 00:00:45.270 –> 00:00:53.160 Alexis Massenburg: is focused on locating black geographies empowering black voices and uncovering the history of the black community in fairfax county Virginia. 6 00:00:54.030 –> 00:01:03.600 Alexis Massenburg: The primary focus of my research is 11 oaks elementary school and even though it was only operated for about 13 years it was still an important piece of black geography. 7 00:01:04.590 –> 00:01:18.750 Alexis Massenburg: So the project is mostly about learning more about the student experience the history of 11 oaks creating a list of faculty and staff present at the school that’s really important to name these black people that had a big impact on this. 8 00:01:20.490 –> 00:01:32.910 Alexis Massenburg: On this Community understanding the desegregation process and mapping the black geographies around 11 oaks, so the school was the pinnacle of the black Community when it was first built, because it was new it was nice. 9 00:01:34.470 –> 00:01:40.620 Alexis Massenburg: And there were seven classrooms instead of just one, so it was definitely something that people were proud of. 10 00:01:41.070 –> 00:01:54.330 Alexis Massenburg: But it still lacked a lot of funding and resources in relation to the white schools and in fairfax county and because of this teachers were heavily relied on to provide food books materials programming. 11 00:01:55.410 –> 00:02:07.680 Alexis Massenburg: And it created a great culture at 11 oaks it was very warm and inviting and supportive, but it still was coming up short in terms of overall resources and funding. 12 00:02:09.300 –> 00:02:20.070 Alexis Massenburg: And also, it was one of the last schools to be integrated so we’ll definitely be talking about a very lengthy desegregation process and I just want to talk about the types of of evidence that I used. 13 00:02:21.510 –> 00:02:31.080 Alexis Massenburg: I used newspapers journals articles historical maps I primarily went to the fairfax city library, and I was able to. 14 00:02:33.150 –> 00:02:46.320 Alexis Massenburg: Look at the newspapers, through this very old machine I forgot what it was called but I was able to look at the newspapers on these on rolls of film and I looked through different vertical files and. 15 00:02:47.910 –> 00:02:49.440 Alexis Massenburg: different historical. 16 00:02:51.840 –> 00:03:05.340 Alexis Massenburg: Like different historical pamphlets and like announcements and pictures and flyers from old just older fairfax schools to kind of understand the culture and ideas about what’s going on there. 17 00:03:06.870 –> 00:03:18.960 Alexis Massenburg: And also Just to give you a quick overview of my results, I was able to locate the black Community I got a great understanding of the desegregation progress the desegregation process and. 18 00:03:20.520 –> 00:03:26.820 Alexis Massenburg: I learned about what programs are available for students of color and I will save in the future, I would like to work on. 19 00:03:29.280 –> 00:03:41.430 Alexis Massenburg: kind of connecting this project more to George mason university and like what hand or university had or what role we had in the disappearance of the black community in fairfax because it definitely is declining. 20 00:03:43.050 –> 00:03:49.740 Alexis Massenburg: And yeah so now, I will go through my personal page so 11 oaks elementary school. 21 00:03:50.760 –> 00:04:09.810 Alexis Massenburg: So this is the first page is just kind of gives you the overview that I just just gave and so some of the history of the school, you can see that 11 oaks is located on school street so it’s very, very close to where our universities to be this is George mason university right here. 22 00:04:11.550 –> 00:04:27.930 Alexis Massenburg: And so 11 oaks was created through the fairfax rosenwald school in 1952 and the school opened in 1953 and it had seven classrooms a cafeteria 215 students on 6.15 acres. 23 00:04:29.730 –> 00:04:46.710 Alexis Massenburg: But it was closed in June on June 6, 1966 due to desegregation and then it was demolished in 2008 to make room for George mason boulevard, which is very close our school, a lot of expensive houses are located near there, especially on 11 oak street so. 24 00:04:48.660 –> 00:04:52.440 Alexis Massenburg: Definitely can see where these biographies are erased. 25 00:04:53.550 –> 00:04:58.740 Alexis Massenburg: These are some maps, this is what 11 looks looks like Currently, this is the school layout. 26 00:05:00.540 –> 00:05:02.730 Alexis Massenburg: And yeah and some more of the school layout. 27 00:05:03.840 –> 00:05:14.280 Alexis Massenburg: So i’ll get into the next page, which is the student experience, so this is a picture of 11 oaks in their school safety patrol 11 oaks is an elementary school. 28 00:05:16.080 –> 00:05:20.370 Alexis Massenburg: And you know I kind of included some of the previous. 29 00:05:22.200 –> 00:05:36.000 Alexis Massenburg: Black elementary schools and their experiences, because those schools were integrated into 11 oaks so one of the teachers talks about how they only had four pieces of chalk, an old broken X for cutting down wood and. 30 00:05:37.320 –> 00:05:50.910 Alexis Massenburg: How they had hand-me-down books from white schools, and they also did have a hot soup program so that’s just an example of black teachers and black faculty being resourceful and trying to provide for the students in ways that you know they did not have funding for. 31 00:05:53.280 –> 00:06:05.850 Alexis Massenburg: yeah and an interesting quote was that this the cub run school the elementary school that had those pieces of chalk and and hand-me-down books was started by people who came out of slavery, whereas the. 32 00:06:07.020 –> 00:06:16.590 Alexis Massenburg: 11 old school is a rosenwald school and it was funded and it was built by the county so it lasted for a long time it lasted until 2008. 33 00:06:17.610 –> 00:06:22.260 Alexis Massenburg: It was utilized for different purposes so that’s definitely something that’s important to note. 34 00:06:26.460 –> 00:06:27.870 Alexis Massenburg: yeah, so there is definitely. 35 00:06:29.610 –> 00:06:37.830 Alexis Massenburg: A positive culture at 11 oaks but still students were lacking resources and. 36 00:06:39.210 –> 00:06:42.480 Alexis Massenburg: there’s a strong comparison between white schools here I show. 37 00:06:43.560 –> 00:06:52.560 Alexis Massenburg: How someone even quoted that I wanted my child to attend green acres, which is a local white school because it was nicer they had newer books, you can see the difference between. 38 00:06:53.370 –> 00:07:01.260 Alexis Massenburg: The black schools and the white school this, I know, the picture is not that great, but this is a really big school compared to this one so. 39 00:07:02.400 –> 00:07:12.330 Alexis Massenburg: And these are the floor layouts of just 11 oaks right here and green acres right here, they look totally different um you can see that green acres is definitely larger. 40 00:07:13.560 –> 00:07:16.890 Alexis Massenburg: And they’re very close to each other, too, so it kind of. 41 00:07:18.840 –> 00:07:25.410 Alexis Massenburg: is a matter of desegregation and discrimination and then next the teachers and staff. 42 00:07:27.450 –> 00:07:30.780 Alexis Massenburg: So, as I said, the Faculty was very supportive. 43 00:07:32.790 –> 00:07:37.620 Alexis Massenburg: 11 oaks only had one principle, the whole time through the whole entire. 44 00:07:39.180 –> 00:07:44.730 Alexis Massenburg: course of the school her name was Janie R. Howard, and she was strict but she also is. 45 00:07:46.110 –> 00:07:53.040 Alexis Massenburg: very generous and warm and no pupil was ever deprived of a hot lunch and she used her own money to pay for meals. 46 00:07:55.740 –> 00:07:56.250 Alexis Massenburg: and 47 00:07:57.690 –> 00:07:58.890 Alexis Massenburg: Some teachers were. 48 00:08:00.180 –> 00:08:09.750 Alexis Massenburg: Some people recall teachers going and getting their own supplies for students, and here I listed all the names of the teachers, because it’s important to name. 49 00:08:11.760 –> 00:08:17.070 Alexis Massenburg: My people that had a very significant role in the Community and then here I. 50 00:08:19.140 –> 00:08:25.290 Alexis Massenburg: Have a picture of where the teachers went when schools were integrated because 11 oaks was shut down. 51 00:08:26.880 –> 00:08:35.850 Alexis Massenburg: And then here mapping of the black communities, so I had a quote where Warren hunter said that everything Southwest drive was. 52 00:08:36.780 –> 00:08:48.150 Alexis Massenburg: black and segregated so this right here would be everything south of West drive, but you can see that the redistricting lines are kind of breaking up this black Community right here so. 53 00:08:48.540 –> 00:08:55.410 Alexis Massenburg: This is just another instance of black geographies being disrupted and I just wanted to highlight that, in my research, because I think it’s important. 54 00:08:56.850 –> 00:09:01.380 Alexis Massenburg: And then here is the lengthy part the road to desegregation so. 55 00:09:03.930 –> 00:09:08.400 Alexis Massenburg: Even though brown versus Board of education was mandated in 1954. 56 00:09:09.840 –> 00:09:18.150 Alexis Massenburg: There was a huge massive resistance movement led by Harry F byrd which was two different schools, I wanted to integrate. 57 00:09:19.380 –> 00:09:34.800 Alexis Massenburg: And you can see that 11 oaks and fairfax county had no intention of desegregating because the school got a new library into classrooms and 1959 which was five years after the desegregation mandate and. 58 00:09:37.170 –> 00:09:41.520 Alexis Massenburg: It was kind of taking a long time for the school to desegregate. 59 00:09:43.470 –> 00:09:54.300 Alexis Massenburg: And at first they tried to have only the first graders go to science schools and second through six remain segregated but then finally in 1966 11 oaks was used as just a kindergarten. 60 00:09:55.680 –> 00:10:06.840 Alexis Massenburg: And then in 1968 it was fully use for admin Center for administration and all the students were relocated to schools that were integrated and closer to their homes. 61 00:10:08.460 –> 00:10:17.040 Alexis Massenburg: And there are some positive stories some people said they may friends black with black and white, children and they integrated decently. 62 00:10:18.900 –> 00:10:33.600 Alexis Massenburg: And the students were relocated to schools like Burke centreville clifton fairview lorton and West more elementary schools, and here I have some numbers of how many the actual number of black students are integrated into these elementary schools and also. 63 00:10:34.680 –> 00:10:44.460 Alexis Massenburg: An article about desegregation being complete and just showing you the proximity of 11 oaks and green acres they’re very close to each other, but they couldn’t be more different. 64 00:10:46.230 –> 00:10:55.980 Alexis Massenburg: And so, the last thing I have is the programs that are available for students of color so this one was particularly intriguing to me the culturally disadvantaged Program. 65 00:10:56.880 –> 00:11:05.610 Alexis Massenburg: So it kind of was just talking about how students that live in bad areas or slum areas have increased drops in IQ after five or six. 66 00:11:08.010 –> 00:11:13.650 Alexis Massenburg: And so the program was created to help students prepare for first grade. 67 00:11:15.120 –> 00:11:18.330 Alexis Massenburg: And the schools were chosen because they were you know. 68 00:11:19.680 –> 00:11:26.880 Alexis Massenburg: Closer to culturally disadvantaged people, and so you know 11 oaks was one of those schools and then this school was born. 69 00:11:27.720 –> 00:11:32.820 Alexis Massenburg: into the head start program, and so the head start program actually is a very positive Program. 70 00:11:33.510 –> 00:11:45.060 Alexis Massenburg: It wants to equalize students in terms of education nutrition psychology social service health volunteer work and classroom experience and keep in mind, these are preschoolers, so this is very, very. 71 00:11:45.690 –> 00:12:04.260 Alexis Massenburg: Advanced for them, and so they have a couple of goals here just to develop communication skills raise a child children’s level of aspiration promote better health developed teacher understanding so it’s definitely a very positive positive program and, here are some pictures of the Program. 72 00:12:05.310 –> 00:12:18.990 Alexis Massenburg: That we got from a head start book that we found in the fairfax city library, so you can see that this desegregation was off to a pretty decent start after you know the very lengthy waiting period, but overall. 73 00:12:20.910 –> 00:12:23.730 Alexis Massenburg: This was my research on 11 oaks elementary school. 74 00:12:25.560 –> 00:12:38.520 Alexis Massenburg: And the results were pretty good, I was able to map the black community, I was able to learn more about desegregation and learn more about these black communities these teachers, where they lived the students their experiences. 75 00:12:39.570 –> 00:12:47.010 Alexis Massenburg: So yeah This is all on the omeka website and I appreciate your time for watching this video, and thank you.

For more on this topic see:
Black Lives Next Door
Black Lives Next Door: Student Voices Meets School Silence
Black Resistance in Fairfax County
BLND Project: “Back to School”: An Examination of the Forgotten Historic Location

3 replies on “Black Lives Next Door – Eleven Oaks Elementary School”

Wow! I can tell you put a lot of work into that website. I’ve read some about how minorities’ stories and histories can be difficult to find, as (white) historians would exclude, change, or gloss over these histories. Did you run into issues finding sources for this project? And did you find any noticeable differences between white vs person of color accounts of Eleven Oaks?

What a great topic! I didn’t know anything about Eleven Oaks, and I feel like you’ve opened my eyes. It was so smart to focus on a location most of us have a connection to–this info hits close to home, literally. I’m really looking forward to reading through this website and learning more!

What a great way to enable others to learn about the history of desegregation and minorities in the Fairfax area! Do you have any plans to provide your website or background on it to local elementary schools to enable them to learn from your work, and/or to local organizations that could support minority programs?

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