Virginia
Virginia School for Colored Deaf and Blind Children (Newport News)
- Established 1909
- Integrated with the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind, 1973
The Virginia School for Colored Deaf and Blind Children had its beginnings with William Ritter, a white man who had been deafened as a child by scarlet fever and had attended the School for the Deaf and Blind in Staunton. In 1887, Mr. Ritter was approached by an African-American woman who offered to do his family's laundry if he would teach her deaf son to read and write. He did so. In 1896, Mr. Ritter petitioned the Virginia State Legislature to appropriate funds to establish a school for black deaf and blind children. He "continued his efforts with untiring zeal"1 until 1908, when the state granted $20,000 for a building and $5,000 for one year's maintenance. The school opened in Newport News in September, 1909, with ten blind and nineteen deaf children. It was later moved to Hampton. Mr. Ritter was the superintendent and teacher; he held that position until he retired in 1938 at the age of 76.
Following the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the school was renamed the Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind, and Multi-Disabled, though it continued to enroll only African-American students. Actual integration came about in 1973, when the first white student was enrolled. The school was closed in 2008.
- Massachusetts Association for Promoting the Interests of the Adult Blind, The New Outlook for the Blind, Volume III (1909), page 153.