This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the 1962 integration of Lynchburg City Schools. In commemoration the division hosted Dr. Virgil Wood, church leader, educator, and civil rights activist, as a guest speaker at E. C. Glass and Heritage High Schools, and at Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School for Innovation the week of January 16th. Dr. Wood stated that the opportunity to talk to students is always a highlight for him.
Dr. Wood committed much of his life’s work to the struggle for economic development among the nation’s disadvantaged. His untiring work and the pivotal role he served in the integration of Lynchburg City Schools provided our current students with a unique opportunity to hear directly from an icon of living civil rights history. Dr. Wood’s influence in bringing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Lynchburg and leading Dr. King's work via the Lynchburg Improvement Association, a local unit of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), helped lay the foundation for student diversity within our classrooms.
Thanks to the Greater Lynchburg Community Trust and the Lynchburg City Schools Education Foundation for providing financial support for this event. In addition, this event was made possible through the division’s partnership with the City of Lynchburg’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Human Rights and Lynchburg College.