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69 years ago, this was happening…

Richmond Times Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia, Sat, Apr 28, 1956 Page 4

1) Bluestone 2) East End 3) Park View

Bluestone High School, May 2021

Bluestone High School closed in 2022, but the story of President Obama’s visit to the school is in the White House archives. Here’s a picture of President Obama visiting Bluestone in 2011. The Mecklenburg Sun wrote the article Bluestone Still Abuzz Over Surprise Guest. The News Progress wrote about the school alumni, February 2024.

East End High School was the African American High School during segregation. East End became Park View Middle School about 1970. This school was demolished last year. The Mecklenburg Sun wrote One Era Ends, Another Begins including pictures and information about African American Schools in the county. (update: See comments for note about West End High School, an African American High School.)

Park View High School also closed in 2022. Mecklenburg now has one high school called Mecklenburg County High School, serving about 1,140 students. The other five county public schools are: Mecklenburg County Middle, Chase City Elementary, Clarksville Elementary, LaCrosse Elementary, and South Hill Elementary. See a video of the new middle and high school complex.

Was Buffalo Junction a train depot? If so, is it still standing?

What do you think?

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What’s New?

  • Finding family after slavery: This link was added to the African American resources page about a preservation project. Formerly enslaved individuals placed newspaper advertisements in order to try to find their families.
  • A new community corner was added to the website.
  • New blog post feature: “Where is…?” questions from the community. This week I used my own question.

Works in Progress

  • Adding people and sources to the Mecklenburg, Virginia tree, which is our community tree.
  • Reading through deeds of old churches to write histories.

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Julie Cabitto

3 responses to “69 years ago, this was happening…”

  1. nutloudlyb033ae78b2 Avatar
    nutloudlyb033ae78b2

    Julie, in regards to the high schools, there was also a West End high school for blacks in the area of Bluestone, not sure of its location. I assume since it was not mentioned that you were not aware of it. I would also assume that East End and West End were established at the same time.

    I was attending Park View when it was first integrated (around 1967?) and it was done rather piecemeal, I assume being on a voluntary basis by the black students as there were only a couple of dozen or so in the whole high school of PV. My recollection was there was some concern about troubles/violence at the time, but it was very peaceful as I remember with no significant issues arising, resulting as you mentioned in full integration in 1970, the year after I graduated.

    Just found this … https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=107471 which is a historical marker for West End and the page has a link to the school’s location between Clarksville and Chase City.

    Sam

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    1. Julie Cabitto Avatar
      Julie Cabitto

      Thank you! You are correct, I was not aware of West End or I would have included it. Thank you for also helping me look for where it was located & sharing your experience of going to Park View.

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  2. nutloudlyb033ae78b2 Avatar
    nutloudlyb033ae78b2

    My mother grew up not far from Buffalo Junction and we visited the area often when I was growing up … and still do. I don’t remember any railroad tracks around Buffalo Junction. The closest that I remember parallels the bridge on route 58 coming into Clarksville but turns south in Clarksville and follows route 15 into NC rather than continuing west to BJ.

    Sam Allgood

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