By the 1870s, Stafford had its first two black schools with a total of 99 students; both had white teachers. By 1883, there were eight one-room schools for blacks, some of which had black teachers; by 1904, all of Stafford’s black schools were taught by blacks.  In 1896, Stafford schools were segregated by race under the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine of “separate but equal.” They were at least equal… Equally bad, under-resourced, and environmentally disastrous.

This is a picture of Brooke Colored School in 1935.  At this time Stafford County had two accredited white high schools, but the highest level of education provided for black children was completion of the 7th grade.