A new plaque at Averett University will commemorate the history of a different Danville school.
Sacred Heart Catholic School — the first school in the city to accept Black students — opened in 1953 in a small Victorian carriage house, a building that is now part of Averett University.
A dedication ceremony Wednesday will unveil a plaque honoring the history of the school.
Though the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ended segregation in public schools, many places in Virginia, like Danville and Pittsylvania, were slow to integrate. Danville didn’t fully desegregate its schools until 1970.
By that time, Sacred Heart had already been teaching Black students for about a decade — a decision that was kept secret at the time.
“Parents would drop off their children and pick them up by this carriage house, concealed from public view,” the plaque states.
The four Sisters of Mercy who founded the school, along with its priest, Carl Naro, kept this secret to protect Black students.
Once, a reporter asked Naro if the school had Black students, and he replied, “We have Catholic school students,” according to a 2018 article in the Catholic Virginian about Sacred Heart’s integration.
The plaque is a local effort, according to Sacred Heart Principal Matthew Weatherford. Since the original Sacred Heart is now part of the Averett campus, he said those at the school wanted to let people know of its history. He reached out to the university, and Averett officials agreed that the marker would “commemorate our humble beginnings in 1953.”
Cardinal News was unable to speak with anyone who was a student at Sacred Heart when it was integrated, but Mike Heitzler, who grew up in Danville and was a member of the church, remembers being in high school when the school opened.
“I remember we did have two Black parishioners at the time, but you just didn’t see them often,” Heitzler said. “Danville was so segregated at that time, it was unbelievable.”
He only heard about Sacred Heart’s integration later, because it was kept hush-hush when it first happened, he said.
“Those things just weren’t talked about,” Heitzler said. “I read later about how they had to take students around the back of the building when they arrived at school.”
Civil rights tensions in Danville peaked in the 1960s, and during the summer of 1963, hundreds of protesters filled the streets calling for integration, fair hiring practices and equal rights.
“Sacred Heart’s integrated Catholic community helped forge the way to desegregation and civil rights,” the plaque states.
The plaque also details the history of the school, which had 67 middle-school students when it opened in 1953.
The carriage house, built in 1901, was purchased in 1966 by Averett University, which was then Averett College.
Today, the carriage house stands behind Averett’s Mary B. Blount Library and serves as part of the school’s art room, with a pottery wheel and other art supplies, said Mary Foley, director of administration and finance at Sacred Heart.
Currently, Sacred Heart is at 540 Central Blvd., where it “continues its rich history of diversity, equality and excellence in education,” the plaque states.
