Desegregation Stories: Rayfield Barber

In September 1960, Judge Albert V. Bryan of the Federal District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, struck down the Fairfax County School Board’s grade-a-year desegregation plan. One of the students who was a party to the lawsuit against the School Board was Rayfield Barber. Mr. Barber grew up in the Spring Bank community of Fairfax County and had attended intermediate school at Luther Jackson High School. Shortly after Judge Bryan’s ruling was handed down, Rayfield Barber was enrolled in the freshman class at Groveton High School. In this interview, conducted in August 2019 at the Drew-Smith Elementary School Reunion, Mr. Barber shares his memories of being the first student to integrate a public high school in Fairfax County.

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