Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School Dedicated on Namesake's 120th Birthday

By Darien Bates

If she were still living, this past Sunday would have marked Mary Ellen Henderson’s 120th birthday. It was fitting then, that the same day, September 18, was also the day for the dedication of the new middle school named for her, the long-time Falls Church resident and educator who worked tirelessly towards equal rights for African Americans here as a teacher, principal and community activist.

At the dedication, speaker after speaker, from Falls Church Schools Superintendent Dr. Lois Berlin, to U.S. Congressman Jim Moran, Virginia State Senator Mary Margaret Whipple and State Delegate Jim Scott and Falls Church Mayor Dan Gardner, all lauded the life and contributions of Ms. Henderson, or Miss Nellie as her former students still remember her to this day.

On hand Sunday were surviving members of Ms. Henderson’s family, who filled the front row of seats on the stage and in the audience in the school’s multi-purpose “cafetorium,” including her son, Dr. James Henderson and his wife Gwen, who made the trip from Alabama to attend, and her grandson Ed Henderson of Falls Church. Also present were a number of her former students, who laughed among themselves when Dr. Henderson recounted stories about the old James Lee School House, where his mother taught for 29 years.

Now able to laugh about the conditions, Dr. Henderson described the run-down two room wood building without heating or indoor plumbing.

But while former students and family now look back on the school with fondness, it was no laughing matter when Miss Nellie compiled a report of the inequality between black and white schools in Fairfax County and presented her figures to county officials in the mid-1930s. Her report showed that over 90% of total school funding went to white schools, a stark contrast to the claim of Jim Crow laws which stated “separate but equal.”

It was that report which spurred the building of a new brick elementary school building, complete with enough classrooms for every grade, indoor plumbing and heating. The building is now the site of the James Lee Community Center.

During the dedication this Sunday, Henderson’s work was likened to that of Eleanor Roosevelt, another accomplished woman whose name was considered by the Falls Church School Board for the new middle school. Henderson was recognized as a woman who toiled tirelessly to advocate the changing of social norms like racial inequity, working on a local level, just as Roosevelt did on the national and global stage.

But it wasn’t just her social work that earned Henderson the respect of the community. Even before she started her work fighting for fair treatment in the schools, she was a beacon in her classroom. Years after moving on to high school and into the rest of their lives, many of her former students can still remember the lessons they learned under Miss Nellie. In interviews earlier this year, a number of her students recalled how they learned everything from the basic subjects, to proper behavior and personal hygiene.

Some of their comments were compiled in a video that was shown on Sunday.

As a final note Sunday, Jamie Martin, development executive for Clark Advisors, the builders of the school, announced that a new portrait of Henderson has been commissioned by his company and will be hung prominently in the school upon its completion. The portrait is being done by Simmie Knox, the portrait artist who painted the official presidential portrait of Bill Clinton and first lady and New York Senator Hillary Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and many other prestigious men and women who have sat for him.

As impressive as the naming of the new school, the speeches and the portrait all are in honoring her legacy, it is the memory of her, the impact that she had on each of the students, children, grandchildren and other members of the community, all of whom seemed to gain something from her, that really honors her work.

Fittingly, it is a school that carries her name. And as students walk the halls, sit in the classrooms, and learn everything they can to prepare for their own futures, they will be taking part in a process that Henderson held in the highest esteem for the three decades she ruled her classroom.

After the dedication, members of the Henderson family and others in the community proceeded to a reception at a private home held by the Falls Church Education Foundation, a non-profit organization that has been working to establish a permanent endowment for the Falls Church school system.