Edwin Washington Project

Key Topics

• State legislature decided in 1916 that free textbooks were to be provided to public schools, if the majority of the electors of a District agreed.  They would then be provided by the school board. (W. Hood 1918, pg 160).   During the 1921/22 school year, all Loudoun students were required to purchase texts, so we assume that most of the electors in the district did not agree.  However, the rule was that If a parent could not afford to buy textbooks, this fact was to be reported to the clerk of the school board, who could then buy the books for such pupils.[1]  In other words, they were not free in Loudoun except for the poor.  We are still researching the impact on African-Americans.
• Textbook committees existed in 1955 for Douglass High School and “colored” elementary schools and for white schools.  See memo of 11 February 1955 in 4.1 Circulars To Teachers (1947-55).  The same memo showed the actual textbooks used.
• See also a history of textbooks on the Virginia Museum of History and Culture website at https://www.virginiahistory.org/collections-and-resources/virginia-history-explorer/education-virginia