This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Parker-Gray Fiftieth Reunion in Alexandria, Virginia. The event not only commemorated the class of 1965, the last graduating class before the school closed, but it also celebrated previous graduating classes and, as one of the event organizers observed, anybody who had anything to do with the school. Reunions often have a bittersweetness about them: an opportunity to renew all acquaintances but also a reminder of loss. This is especially true in the case of my high school alma mater because with racial integration under full sway the school became a casualty. It is ironic that African American educational institutions forced to operate in society hostile to its very existence in the throes in racial segregation would become extinct under the emergence of racial integration.
