PARKSLEY, Va. — Nine new historical markers are headed to roadsides across the Commonwealth, including one in Accomack County.

The new marker, approved earlier this month by Virginia’s Department of Historic Resources (DHS), will recognize the segregation-era Whitesville Elementary School, built in 1925 to serve Black children in Parksley. The school closed in 1964, and the county’s public schools were fully desegregated in 1970.

The sign will be posted at 23459 Leslie Trent Road. Its full text will read:

Whitesville Elementary School
This school was built in 1925 to serve the children of Whitesville, an African American community that had developed alongside Parksley in the 1880s. A contribution of $900 came from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, created in 1917 after Rosenwald (president of Sears, Roebuck, and Co.) and Booker T. Washington (founding principal of Tuskegee Institute) had partnered in a school-building campaign. Rosenwald funding helped construct about 5,000 schools for Black students across the South by leveraging local spending. The Whitesville school, built with $1,700 from the Black community and $4,150 in public funds, closed in 1964. Accomack County Public Schools were not fully desegregated until 1970.

There’s no word yet on when the sign will be erected. Other new historical markers announced by the DHS include the early 20th century Treble Clef and Book Lovers’ Club in Richmond and a sign denoting “‘Racial Integrity’ and the Tribes of King William” in King William County.