pedantic nuthatch

I've attended community theater performances at Jennie Dean Elementary School in Manassas, and I've seen other public places around town dedicated to her memory. It turns out Jane Dean (known as "Miss Jennie") was a African-American woman, born just before the Civil War, who went on to found a vocational school for blacks in Prince William County in the late part of the 19th century. Dean Elementary was originally built as a replacement for that facility, and was integrated in 1966.

The Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth was a private institution publicly acknowledged for its importance to the education of black youth in Virginia. As a result of Jennie Dean's efforts and foresight, over 6,500 young black people from Virginia, the District of Columbia, and at least ten other states received an education.

A bronze scale model of the campus serves as a memorial. Jennie Dean Park is stop #12 on a walking tour designed by Alfred Taylor through the Nauck (once known as Green Valley) neighborhood of Arlington. Now I have a name for the long step grade of Walter Reed Drive down to the floodplain of Four Mile Run: the locals call it Superman Hill.

Stop #13 on the tour is the county incubator Theatre on the Run, which is where we were yesterday, which is what sparked the online research into Dean.