Stay updated with breaking news from Ralphl blackwell. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
WOOSTER Virginia Blackwell wanted to be a teacher and she wanted to be a teacher in her hometown. The opportunity finally arrived in 1963, almost 20 years after Blackwell earned her degree from West Virginia State College, an all-Black school at that time. Wooster City Schools hired her as a special education teacher, making her the first Black teacher in the district’s history. “She was just glad she got to teach… She didn’t look at it as a fight but her right,” said Carolyn Huff of her mother, who died on March 3. She was 98. Virginia Blackwell s early years Blackwell was born on March 29, 1922, in Wooster. She graduated from Wooster High School in 1940 and earned a degree in music education with a minor in history from West Virginia State College in 1944. ....