Time Line


1896: Plessy versus Ferguson

1913: Lynchburg’s N.A.A.C.P. begins

1923: Paul Laurence Dunbar High School opens

1930s:The Great Depression

         The Lynchburg Voters League begins

         African-American community badly hurt by economic downturn; many Dunbar High School students forced to drop out of school

1938: Clarence William “Dick” Seay hired, first African-American principal, Dunbar High

1946: Lynchburg School Board equalizes White and African-American teachers’ salaries

1949: School Board votes to build E.C. Glass High School

1951: Virginia Hughes hired by Lynchburg Police force as crossing guard, first African-American on payroll

1953: Carl Hutcherson, first African-American to serve, appointed to the School Board
          E.C. Glass High School completed.

1954: Brown versus Board of Education
         Prince Edward County public schools briefly shut down

1955: “Massive Resistance” begins in Virginia
            Virgil Wood arrives in Lynchburg
            Carter Glass III becomes manager of The News and The Daily Advance

1956: Special session of Virginia Legislature creates the Pupil Placement Board (PPB)

1959: Crystabel Harris requests to transfer from Dunbar to E.C. Glass
         Father John Teeter arrives in Lynchburg
         Prince Edward County public schools again close

1960: February 1st: First sit-in, Greensboro, NC

         Summer: Rebecca Owen meets Greensboro, NC, sit-inners
         Fall: Bi-racial college student group begins meeting
         November: Lynchburg NAACP pickets the F.W. Woolworth store on Main Street
         December: Patterson Drug Store sit-in

1961: Spring: Freedom Riders come through Lynchburg
         May: The A & P Supermarket picketed to protest its hiring practices
         Summer: Owen Cardwell, Brenda Hughes, Cecilia Jackson, and Lynda Woodruff submit transfer requests from Dunbar to Glass; requests denied by the PPB
         Virgil Wood organizes picnic for Prince Edward County students
         July 4: Olivet Thaxton and a group of children attempt to swim in the Miller Park pool
         Fall: Aided by N.A.A.C.P. lawyers from Roanoke, Owen Cardwell, Brenda Hughs, Cecilia Jackson, and Lynda Woodruff go to court

1962: January 29: Owen Cardwell and Lynda Woodruff begin classes at E.C. Glass
         March: Martin Luther King, Jr., speaks at E.C. Glass
         September: Brenda Hughes and Cecelia Jackson begin classes at Glass

1964: Reverend Haywood Robinson, Jr. arrives

1968: Monument Terrace protest

1969: BLAC begins

1971: Cross burned on Councilman Leighton Dodd’s lawn

1979: Dunbar High School razed.

June 25, 2000: Legacy Museum of African American History opens