IN FEBRUARY, the Alexandria City School Board voted to name the new West End school Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School after one of Alexandria’s civil rights icons.

Ferdinand T. Day was born in Alexandria and grew up during a period when racial segregation was part of his daily experience. He attended the segregated Parker-Gray School and, because Alexandria offered no formal high school education for African-Americans, completed his secondary education in District of Columbia public schools.

Day earned a bachelor’s degree in geography and history and hoped to become a teacher. Because there were limited places where blacks could teach in Alexandria, he went to work for the federal government, eventually retiring from the U.S. State Department as a foreign service resource officer.

The impact of segregation and the limitations it imposed on him had a profound effect on Day. He dedicated his life to working toward desegregation in education and to improving the lives of people of color. Day was one of a group of African-American men working toward civil rights and the integration of schools and other public institutions in Alexandria in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

In 1964, Day was elected to the Alexandria City School Board and later became the first African-American to be elected chair of a public school board in Virginia. He also served as vice chairman of both the Northern Virginia and the Virginia State Boards of Community Colleges. He was later selected by the Secretary of Education to assist in the desegregation of higher education in Virginia.

Day was named a Living Legend of Alexandria for his role in the integration of Alexandria schools and his work in obtaining rights and opportunities for African-Americans. He was instrumental in the integration of T.C. Williams High School, as memorialized in the film, “Remember the Titans.”

Ferdinand T. Day Elementary will be a STEM school, focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. It will open in September 2018.

CHANGES TO SCHOOL WALK ZONES

The Board also approved changes to the walk zone policy for FY 2018-19. Two major changes are: 1) distances for K – 8 walk zones will be measured by the actual walking distance from the school instead of a straight line; and 2) the one-mile walk zone will expand beyond K – 5 to apply to all K – 8 students. For complete details, visit acpsk12.org/news/?p=9300.