Harry Burke: Educator, Community Leader, and Historian

Harry Burke

Harry Burke served as a public schoolteacher for several decades.  During segregation, African American youths had no place to swim. When the African American community dedicated the Johnson Memorial Pool in 1952, Burke served as the director.  He was also responsible for organizing the first black swim teams in Alexandria.  He conducted classes for youth to earn lifeguard certification. Burke was instrumental in securing scholarships for athletes who would join collegiate swim teams.  Harry served for several years as the Alexandria Society for the Preservation of Black Heritage Chairman and was an advocate for preserving Alexandria’s African American heritage.

Moses Hepburn: Contractor and Builder

Born in 1809 to an enslaved mother and a wealthy white man, Hepburn received a large inheritance after his father died.  He purchased land and water rights to his properties along the Potomac River and helped purchase the land for what is now Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church.  Hepburn built four townhouses at 206-212 N. Pitt Street. Facing the charge of the “crime” of sending his son to school, he moved to Pennsylvania. At that time, educating African Americans was against the law.

Reverend George Parker: Minister, Politician and Entrepreneur

In 1870, he was the first African American to serve on the Alexandria City Council. Rev. Parker founded Third Baptist Church located on Princess and N. Patrick Streets. He was one of the first teachers at First Select Colored School and was the owner of The Empire House Hotel located between Payne and Fayette Streets.

George Lewis Seaton: Politician, Master Carpenter, and Builder

Seaton was the first African American elected to the Virginia General Assembly from Alexandria, in 1869. He constructed the Seaton School for Boys, the Hallowell School for Girls, the Odd Fellows Hall and many homes in Alexandria. Seaton was a founder of the Colored Building Association and the Colored YMCA.  He lived at 404 South Royal Street.

Alexandria Negro Public Schools

Parker-Gray High School

• John Parker and Sarah Gray

Lyles-Crouch Elementary School

• Rozier Lyles and Jane Crouch

Charles Houston Elementary School

• Civil Rights Lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston



Andrew W. Adkins: Minister and Educator

Alfred Street Baptist Church

Rev. Andrew Adkins was pastor of the historic Alfred Street Baptist Church for 43 years (1920-1963), the longest serving pastor in the church’s history.  In addition to his religious duties, he also taught in the local schools.  As there was then no secondary education for Negroes in Alexandria, he began teaching high school classes in one room of the Parker-Gray Elementary School during his first full year in the city.  Within five years, this small effort led to the creation of the first high school for Negroes in Alexandria, but it would be 1936 before the high school received full accreditation.  He continued to teach through most of his pastorate at Alfred Street and oversaw the church during the Great Depression, its most financially bleak years.  His legacy as a great pastor and dedicated educator within Alexandria resulted in a city-wide day of mourning upon his death in 1963.  He was the father of well-known educators Rutherford, Aldrich, and Robert Adkins.

William H.Pitts, Sr.: Athlete, Educator, and Principal

William H. Pitts, Sr.

Pitts was a three-year starter for Virginia Union University’s football team, 1921 to 1924.  On the 1923 National Championship Football Team, he started as a running back.  He was inducted into the school’s Football Hall of Fame in 1928.

Pitts epitomized the Parker-Gray experience.  As principal of Parker-Gray from 1938 to 1965, Pitts pressed for curriculum expansion including business education, art, dramatics, and industrial art; equal opportunities in education including physical education for girls; and continuous upgrading of teacher preparation.  Parker-Gray achieved recognition as an outstanding institution of learning and one unequaled in athletics.