Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth

Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth, also known as the Jennie Dean Memorial Site, is the site of a former school for African-American children located at Manassas, Virginia. The site is named for Jennie Dean, a charismatic ex-slave who believed in the value of vocational education for African-American youth of both sexes.

Dean and other African Americans (with assistance of sympathetic whites) established the school in 1893, and it operated as a private residential institution until it was taken over in 1938 by a regional public school system after the Virginia Supreme Court eventually interpreted the 1902 state constitution's free public education requirement (through litigation sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as mandating public schools for African American children. Then, for about two decades beginning in 1938, the Manassas Industrial School formally became the only school for higher education of African American students in five northern Virginia counties (Prince William, Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun and Fauquier). After World War II, northern Virginia's population increased and the NAACP vehemently disagreed with requiring segregated schools, and began litigating against segregated schools. This resulted in multiple court decisions against such in the 1950s, including Brown v. Board of Education and a companion case from Virginia which led to Massive Resistance. The Manassas Industrial School closed in 1959, as Massive Resistance finally collapsed and the segregated facility was no longer needed.

The Manassas Industrial School buildings were demolished, and new elementary school with ball fields and park facilities constructed nearby. A series of historic markers was erected on the property, and the site landscaped.

Recently discovered (September, 2015) is the class roster for 1927. The Principal was William C. Taylor. Class colors were Red and Black. Class flower was a White Rose. Class roll was: William Henry Bailey, Garnetta Cornelia Battle, Ruth Estelle Clarke, Edward Albert Chambers, Naomi Agusta Dean, Edith Mae Gaskins, Harry Wilson Hall, Virginia Kelley Kenny, Paul Emanuel Rier, Adrian Francais Robinson, Mary Viola Roberts, Kathleeen Lewisha Thomas, Rosa James Thomas, Tasco Delany Thomas, Hazel Belle Voorhees, William Henry Waddell, George Shermy woodson, Roberta Josephine Waters and Mary Synora Waller. Class motto was: Pick out you peak and climb. (source Larry Roeder, Director, Conklin Village Project. https://conklinproject.wordpress.com/

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.