The poll tax in Virginia originated when it was still a colony int he first meeting of the General Assembly in 1619. At that time it was not a prerequisite for voting, that was not instituted until 1876 when the state constitution was amended.
In 1950 Mrs. Jessie Butler, a resident of Halls Hill, began a fight to eliminate the requirement for payment of the poll tax. It began in Federal Court where the state attorney general attempted to have the case dismissed. Note they tried to blame the low number of Negro residents who have registered due the the “shifting population.”
Mrs. Butler then filed another lawsuit against the Arlington County Registrar and other officials who prevented her from voting because she failed to pay the poll tax. In the original case, Mrs. Butler was unsuccessful with the federal judges in Alexandria. Undeterred, she decided to appeal her case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The appeal failed when the court upheld the Virginia Poll tax.
Mrs. Butler’s attorney, John Locke Green requested his name be withdrawn as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar in his continuing opposition to the Poll Tax. In March 1966, fifteen years after Mrs. Butler’s appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled the Virginia Poll Tax unconstitutional in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections.
Read more Halls Hill history in My Halls Hill Family: More Than a Neighborhood
Principal and Teacher at Langston School from 1922-1961
Mrs. Elizabeth Snyder Hill was an icon as a teacher at Langston. She began teaching on Halls Hill at the Sumner School in 1922, three years before the Langston School building opened. On Friday, May 19, 1961, she was honored by the Halls Hill community for her 39 years of dedicated service. This week I am going to share the program from that event, which is just one of the many items my mom, Idabel G. Jones saved from events in the Halls Hill community over the years.
The program cover.
You can see that Mr. James H. Brown was president of the Langston Elementary School Parent Teacher Association and my mom’s best friend, Mrs. Patience Spriggs (there is a typo on the cover) was the chairman of the event.
Mrs. Hill’s biography.
Mrs. Hill was a teacher for hundreds of Halls Hill children during her career, including both my parents and many of my siblings. And of course, Mrs. Hill was a graduate of an HBCU (Historically Black College and University), Howard University. She also received a Master’s Degree from New York University. The teachers at the segregated schools were excellent, and Mrs. Hill was one of the staff that set the standard, according to all the stories I have heard. She also was quite firm in the manner in which she managed her classes, and the school during the years she was principal.
Businesses that contributed toward the event as advertisers.
Mrs. Faggins and the members of the Crescent Club were all Halls Hill residents. You can see that Prestons’ Pharmacy was a supporter of Halls Hill almost 60 years ago. This page and the ones that follow show the community supporters and organizations that contributed toward the event and were obviously a big part of the Halls Hill community.
More advertiser/business patrons.
This page has the local eye doctor and Mr. Vance Green’s barber shop, which still stands, today it’s where Rick’s Tattoo Shop is located. Mr. Green lived on North 19th Road. The other advertiser is Rev. James E. Browne, Sr. who was an electrician, as well as the assistant pastor at Mount Salvation Baptist Church. Rev. Browne and his family lived next to Langston School on Culpeper street.
The program.
The people involved in the program are not well known from a community perspective except for Mr. James H. Brown speaking for the PTA. This Mr. James Brown, without the “e” lived with his family on 22nd street. And Mr. Alfred Clark, the captain of Fire Station 8 was also the president of the John M. Langston Citizens Association at that time.
The Langston School staff and the people responsible for the program.
OK, lots of familiar names here. There are some typos, like Mr. Gravitt, not Granitt. But I remember almost every person listed on this page. And one of them is my mom, Idabel Jones, the assistant dietician, working under Rev. Browne’s wife, Mrs. Hazel Browne. And rounding out the kitchen staff is Mrs. Eunice Carter. Rev. Browne took a pic of them after the finished the lunch shift one day outside the multipurpose room door of the school.
My mom, Mrs. Idabel G. Jones, Mrs. Eunice Carter, and Mrs. Hazel Browne. See Fire Station 8 in the background. Another ad page in the program.
I don’t know who the “Two Physicians,” are but I am assuming it’s Drs. Harold Johnson and Oscar Ellison, Jr., the two Black doctors serving the Halls Hill and Falls Church areas. The Modern Beauty-Barber Shop was familiar to my family because Mrs. Adele Williams and her family were close friends of our family.
Chinn Funeral Home purchased a full page ad.Another page of ads in the program.
The Citizens Association and the Mount Salvation Baptist Church ads along with a beauty salon purchased ads for this important community event.
Calloway’s full page ad was the final page of the program.
Mrs. Hill was much loved by the Halls Hill community. I know my mom was truly touched by her influence as she saved this program in almost perfect condition since 1961 until her death in 2017. We discovered the program in her papers and I am so happy to share it with all of you today. I know there are many people who read the blog who may remember her.
Arlington High School Choices in 1957 – audio recording
Arlington in 2020 is a progressive community. I have frequent conversations about how far we have come as a society since the days of Jim Crow, Massive Resistance, and the inception of institutional racism. But what I have discovered is that many people don’t know the truth. The details. The day-to-day choices and challenges Black people dealt with every day.
In this season of our children returning to school, I went back to review the choices Arlington high school students had in the fall of 1957. The U.S Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that public schools should be desegregated, but the County and Commonwealth were engaged in lengthy, costly, and ultimately, unsuccessful efforts to continue the segregation of Black and white schoolchildren. Virginia intended to sustain separate, but equal schools, despite the federal government’s decision. But just a quick review of the course offerings at Washington-Lee versus Hoffman-Boston high schools made it clear how unequal the choices were for Black students. See below for the course listings for both schools from the archives of the Library of Virginia.
COURSES OFFERED AT WASHINGTON-LEE HIGH SCHOOL 1957-58 SCHOOL YEAR
ART Applied Design I Applied Design II General Art I General Art II General Art III
BUSINESS Bookkeeping I Bookkeeping II Commercial Law Shorthand I Shorthand II Typing I Typing II Business Machines Commercial Arithmetic Vocational Office Training
DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION
ENGLISH English II English III English IV Advanced Composition Speech Drama Journalism
HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION Health and PE II Health and PE III Driver Training
HOME ECONOMICS Home Ec. I Home Ec. II Home Ec. III Home Ec. Special Foods Clothing
INDUSTRIAL ARTS Electric Fundamentals Radio Theory and Repairs II TV & Repairs Auto Mechanics Transportation Shop General Metals Mechanic Drawing I Mechanical Drawing II & III Advanced Machine Woodworking General Cabinet & Graphic Arts Graphic Arts
LANGUAGE Latin I Latin II Latin III & IV Combined French I French II French III & IV Separated German I German II Spanish I Spanish II Spanish III & IV Combined
MATHEMATICS General Math Vocational Math Algebra I Algebra II Plane Geometry Accelerated Algebra- Solid Geometry Solid Geometry- Trigonometry Trigonometry- College Algebra
MUSIC Choir Madrigals Mixed Chorus Girls’ Chorus Music Appreciation Music Theory Orchestra Band Workshop Band
SCIENCE Biology Physics Chemistry
SOCIAL STUDIES Virginia & U.S. History Virginia & U.S. Government Psychology World History World Geography Economics
COURSES OFFERED AT HOFFMAN-BOSTON HIGH SCHOOL 1957-58 SCHOOL YEAR
ART Basic Art I Basic Art II
BUSINESS Commercial Arithmetic Typing I Typing II Shorthand I Commercial Practice & Business Machines
ENGLISH English II English III English IV
FOREIGN LANGUAGES French I French II
Health & Physical Education
HOMEMAKING EDUCATION Homemaking I Homemaking II Homemaking III
INDUSTRIAL ARTS General Cabinet Making & Graphic Arts Industrial Arts Lab for Girls Mechanical Drawing I Transportation Auto Mechanics Woodworking Laboratory
MUSIC Choral Music Girls’ Choir Mixed Chorus
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC Concert Band Orchestra
SCIENCE Biology Chemistry
SOCIAL STUDIES World History U.S. & Virginia History
SPEECH General SpeechTherapy in Speech is available
I read during my research that the only reason Hoffman-Boston offered any Foreign Language at this time was because one of the English teachers had the ability to teach both languages, so the course was made available to the students.
The fact that the government would continue to try to pursue in federal court that this treatment of Black students was fair just shows the extent of institutional racism. It’s very clear from these lists that Black students were not offered the same educational opportunities as white students.
Unfortunately, there are still unequal circumstances existing in Arlington County Public Schools. There are schools in North Arlington becoming even more segregated with the latest school boundary changes. A critical program for children with IEPs is offered at some Arlington elementary schools but not at Drew Elementary School, a school that serves a large contingent of Black and Brown children and has been consistently disenfranchised by the Arlington Public School leadership and the School Board for decades. We have much more work to do to achieve equity among students in our public schools.
There has been a lot of discussion over the past month regarding how Arlington County elects its government. The Virginia General Assembly approved a Patrick Hope (D-Arlington) proposed bill creating an option for “ranked choice” in voting legislation. The Arlington Civic Federation is standing up a committee to explore the Arlington Form of Government. I was recently interviewed about my perspective on this issue. It had me thinking about the only Halls Hill resident I am aware of that ran for Arlington County Board, Dr. Edward T. Morton.
Dr. and Mrs. Edward T. Morton on the porch of their home at 4842 Lee Highway
Dr. Morton caused quite a stir in Arlington when he made the decision to run for elected office as a County Board candidate in 1931. A Black person had not previously run for elected office since 1903, per a Washington Post article that reported on Dr. Morton’s candidacy.
Note that this election was the first under a “new form of County Government.” Unfortunately, Dr. Morton was not elected to the County Board. To my knowledge, we have had three Black County Board members since 1932, William T. Newman (the first elected Black County Board member in 1987), Charles P. Monroe, and Christian Dorsey. And to my knowledge, only one Latinx County Board member has ever been elected, J. Walter Tejada.
I certainly think it is time to look at the way our County Board and School Board members are elected. You would expect there to be more diversity among our County leaders so the leadership more closely resembles the community they govern.
