West Springfield High School Applied History Class Oral History Interviews

Title

West Springfield High School Applied History Class Oral History Interviews

Description

The course involves examining and learning about history from a different perspective from what is taught in a typical history class. There also is a heavy emphasis on examining local history, going as small as your neighborhood potentially. The goal of the second semester internship was to interview various African American residents who are native to Fairfax County to begin documenting the African American experience in the county.  

Interview Summaries   
  • Camille Brown lived in Bailey’s Crossroads. She started high school at Luther Jackson High that was then the only high school for all black students in Fairfax County. When schools were desegregated, she attended JEB Stuart High School,where she had to sit in the back of the school bus and eat by herself at lunch.  
  • Dee Dee Carter grew up in Vienna.  Her family includes descendants of Native Americans of the Powhatan Confederacy.  She opposed a fundraising activity at her high school where students acted as slaves and others paid money to free the “slaves.”  
  • Chrystal Gaskins grew up in Northern Virginia.  The interracial marriage of her parents was considered taboo.  In high school, she had to fight to take the automotive class, because a woman had never done that before.  
  • Phyllis Walker- Ford grew up in Franconia where her father was born. She attended segregated schools in Fairfax County and participated in sit-ins at college administration buildings.  
  • Bobby Whitmore grew up in the house his father built in Merrifield. His father was the first African American mail carrier in the area. Because of the light color of his skin, Bobby was harassed by both black and white classmates.   

Creator

Nia Maronda
Solene Montgomery

Collection

Oral Histories

Citation

Nia Maronda and Solene Montgomery, “West Springfield High School Applied History Class Oral History Interviews,” Fairfax County African American History Inventory, accessed October 24, 2026, https://fairfaxaahi.centerformasonslegacies.com/items/show/328.