240 Luray Avenue
Front Royal, Virginia 22630
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Direction from Front Royal Colored School to site 24:
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In 1906 a high school department was added to Front Royal's first public school at 21-23 South Royal Avenue (c. 1870, still standing). In 1910 a new building for both the grade school and the Front Royal High School opened on Crescent St. (site of the current E. Wilson Morrison Elementary School). In 1918 the school board changed the name to Warren County High School, reflecting the consolidation of several county schools.
Warren County High School (now Skyline Middle School) was a Public Works Administrative project, was constructed in 1940. In 1958, the local NAACP chapter, led by James W. Kilby, won a federal suit against the Warren County School Board to admit African Americans for the first time. In response, and as a result of Virginia’s Massive Resistance strategy, Gov. James Lindsay Almond, Jr. ordered the school to close in September 1958. It reopened following the 1959 Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruling that Massive Resistance was unconstitutional.
On 18 Feb. 1959, 23 African American students walked up this hill and integrated the school. Because the school was closed for much of the 1958-1959 school year, there is no official graduating class of 1959 for Warren County High School.
Warren County High School (now Skyline Middle School) was a Public Works Administrative project, was constructed in 1940. In 1958, the local NAACP chapter, led by James W. Kilby, won a federal suit against the Warren County School Board to admit African Americans for the first time. In response, and as a result of Virginia’s Massive Resistance strategy, Gov. James Lindsay Almond, Jr. ordered the school to close in September 1958. It reopened following the 1959 Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruling that Massive Resistance was unconstitutional.
On 18 Feb. 1959, 23 African American students walked up this hill and integrated the school. Because the school was closed for much of the 1958-1959 school year, there is no official graduating class of 1959 for Warren County High School.
