Supervisors OK $36,000 in Black heritage signage along Cooks Corner trail

by Larry Chowning –

The Heritage Committee is seeking Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR) status for the Cooks Corner community through the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR).

The committee was formed in 2019 and is made up of alumni of the onetime, all-Black St. Clare Walker (SCW) High School. The campus was converted to an integrated middle school in 1969. Its buildings are now mostly used as offices, but some buildings there are currently unused.

Heritage Committee Chairman Patricia Poulson Satterfield stated that the committee is currently working with the Fairfield Foundation seeking $150,000 in grants to restore the “White Building.”

The board voted unanimously to provide the $36,000 that will enable the committee to proceed with the necessary signage along the nature trail.

During the segregation era, the Cooks Corner area was a center of commerce in the county for Black entrepreneurship. It was also where Rappahannock Central Elementary (RCE) School was formed in 1962. RCE was built to accommodate all-Black elementary students to adhere to “separate but equal” federal law. The law was a precursor to the integration of schools. It allowed segregation as long as equal facilities were provided for Black and white school children. During integration, RCE became the elementary school for both Black and white children in the central and western end of Middlesex County.