Conclusion
Analysis
In 1959 the Prince William County School system demolished the remaining original buildings in order to construct a more modern structure. The Manassas Industrial School was an important institution for the African American community. Although it was plagued with many set backs which were damaging to the institution itself the school brought with it a sense of unity among the African American community against the racist policies and ideas of whites in general. It failed as a private institution shortly after Villard and his Northern friends withdrew their support but the school was deemed to be important enough to warrant purchase by the local government thus becoming the first secondary school in the public school system in Northern Virginia.
The school provided a solid education for many African Americans, like Stephen Lewis who went on to become a dentist. In addition, it prepared many African Americans to become teachers. These teachers went back to their homes and became significant through their spreading of some basic educational skills. These skills helped pave the way for future advances in the African American long road to equality. Though it had several failings the school was a sources of community pride and it allowed for a commonality of purpose which allowed blacks to test the boundaries in an otherwise marginalized society. The current atmosphere that surrounds the Manassas Industrial School remains clouded and filled with differing opinions as to how the school should be remembered. There have been ceremonies and a memorial established honoring the school and its founders, but in reality this has been a continuation of Manassas’s denial of their own racial divisions. The majority of Black citizens in the area remain in poor housing and racial divides seem even more pronounced than ever. Thus we should look at the historical sense of the Manassas Industrial School as a means of understanding the racial makeup of the Manassas community today. The key to this is to understand that the school is not really a monument to a sense of racial cooperation so much as it is a microcosm of the growing Black nationalistic spirit and the sense of anxiety that this caused among the white community as a whole.
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