Featured Profile: Samuel W. Tucker
Samuel Wilbert Tucker was born on June 18, 1913, in Alexandria, Va. He attended Parker-Gray School and graduated from Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C. Attending segregated schools left a deep impression on Tucker that would later fuel his desire to fight for civil rights.
Tucker graduated from Howard University in 1933 and began practicing law in Alexandria, Va. His civil rights career began as he organized a 1939 sit-in at a then-segregated public library. After his friends were arrested for sitting in the library, Tucker served as their lawyer.
In court, police told the judge that the Black men were not supposed to be in a library for whites. But Tucker argued Alexandria citizens must not go to jail for using the library because all Black citizens do not have a library to use and the library should be for everyone. The charges were dropped. A year later, a library was built in Alexandria for Black residents. Today, everyone may use the Alexandria Library.
Tucker later fought for the desegregation of Virginia’s public schools in the 1950s and 1960s.
He argued and won several civil rights cases before the U. S. Supreme Court, including Green v. County School Board of New Kent County. According to The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights In America, this case “did more to advance school integration than any other Supreme Court decision since Brown.”
Samuel Wilbert Tucker died Oct. 19, 1990. In 2000, Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School opened and was named after the civil rights icon.
Video: Harriet Jacobs, Champion of Alexandria Public Education
One of the most important historical figures in Alexandria’s early public education system was a former slave named Harriet Jacobs. After escaping slavery, Jacobs published the book “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and became an activist and relief worker. During the Civil War, she raised money to build the first tuition-free school for African American children run by African Americans. Jacobs was a true champion for public education in Alexandria. Learn more about her in our Black History Month video profile.