Sarah A. Gray (c. 1847 – January 8, 1893) was an American educator from the state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Biography

Sarah A. Gray was born in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

to parents William and Laura Dundas Gray. As her father was free and her mother was emancipated, she was able to attend St. Francis School in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

(an opportunity which was not afforded to most African Americans at the time, under

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

). She began teaching at age 14. As the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

progressed, many former slaves fled to Alexandria. To address the educational needs of their children, Gray and colleague Jane A. Crouch founded the St. Rose Institute, which remained open throughout the war. Gray established the Excelsior School in 1867, and became a teacher at Alexandria's first public school for black girls, Hallowell School, in 1870. She was named Hallowell's principal in 1883. During her tenure, she traveled to Northern states to study new educational methods and added

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

classes to Hallowell's curriculum. She retired in 1892 for health reasons, and died in 1893.

Honors

In 1920, Hallowell School for Girls was consolidated with Snowden School for Boys. The combined institution was named Parker-Gray School, in honor of Sarah A. Gray and fellow African American educator John F. Parker. After this closed, a new Parker-Gray High School was established in 1950. This remained open until 1965, when all Alexandria schools were integrated. In 1983, T. C. Williams High School's stadium was renamed Parker-Gray Memorial Stadium. The original school also lent its name to the surrounding neighborhood. In 2016, Sarah A. Gray was honored by the

Library of Virginia The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It serves as the archival agency and the reference library for Virginia's seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and ...

Virginia Women in History Virginia Women in History was an annual program sponsored by the Library of Virginia that honored Virginia women, living and dead, for their contributions to their community, region, state, and nation. The program began in 2000 under the aegis of th ...

program.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Sarah A 1840s births 1893 deaths 19th-century American educators African-American schoolteachers People from Alexandria, Virginia Schoolteachers from Virginia 19th-century American women educators