Institution

<div>Sarah A. Gray (ca. 1847–January 8, 1893) was born free in Alexandria. Unlike most African Americans who were denied an education under slavery, she attended a Catholic school for girls near Baltimore during the 1850s. When the Civil War broke out, many enslaved men, women, and children escaped to Alexandria, which soon came under the control of the U.S. Army. Determined to help the former slaves, known as contrabands, Gray and a colleague founded a school in October 1861 and held classes throughout the war. In 1867 Gray established the Excelsior School, where she taught reading, writing, math, and geography, and also trained her female pupils in needlework as a way for them to earn a living.</div><div><br></div><div>In 1870 Virginia created its first statewide system of public schools, which were racially segregated by law. Gray became a teacher at Alexandria's school for African American girls. The school board named her principal of Hallowell School in 1883. Striving to provide a high-quality education for her students, she traveled north to study new teaching methodologies. At a time when most public schools in Virginia focused on primary grades, Hallowell began adding high school classes for its advanced students. Gray suffered poor health in the last years of her life and retired a few months before her death. When a new school for African Americans opened in 1920, the city honored Gray's service by naming it the Parker-Gray School, for Sarah A. Gray and John F. Parker, another local African American educator.<br><br><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><br></div>

Sarah A. Gray's signed school report to the Freedmen's Bureau, November 1858, image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

Alexandria's Parker-Gray School, which was named in part for Sarah Gray, 16 Nov. 1936, Virginia Department of Education School Buildings Service, image courtesy of the Library of Virginia.

The Library of Virginia honored Sarah A. Gray as one of its Virginia Women in History in 2016. 

The Virginia Women in History Digital Trail is made possible by the Library of Virginia and American Evolution: Virginia to America, 1619–2019.

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African Americans and public education  in Virginia after the Civil War

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During the 1880s and 1890s, Sarah A. Gray served as principal of Hallowell School for girls, then located at 413 N. Alfred Street, where she had a profound influence on the education of African Americans in Alexandria.

Sarah A. Gray

A driving tour showcasing the Library of Virginia's Virginia Women in History honorees from the Northern Virginia region.

Virginia Women in History - Northern Virginia Region

<p>The daughter of an enslaved seamstress and a white indentured servant, Ona Maria Judge (ca. 1773–February 25, 1848) was a trusted a personal maid to Martha Washington. She grew up at Mount Vernon, likely living in the communal slave quarters known as the House for Families with her mother and siblings. Like most enslaved women and men, she was not taught how to read or write, although she was trained as a seamstress. She began working as part of the labor force in the mansion as a child and became a favorite of Martha Washington, who selected Judge as one of the few slaves to accompany her to New York and then to Philadelphia during George Washington's presidential terms.</p><p><br /></p><p>While living in Philadelphia, Judge (who was referred to by the Washingtons as Oney) was regularly sent home to Mount Vernon to avoid establishing legal residency in Pennsylvania that would result in her freedom. Inspired by abolitionist sentiment in Philadelphia and angry that she was to be given to the Washingtons' granddaughter, Judge turned to the city's free Black community to help her escape. While the family ate dinner on May 21, 1796, Judge fled on a ship that took her to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She found work as a domestic servant and married an African American sailor, with whom she had three children, and avoided being returned to slavery despite George Washington's multiple attempts to regain his wife's property. For more than fifty years, Ona Judge Staines succeeded in living as a free woman.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</p>

Ona Judge grew up enslaved at George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation, but she escaped slavery and defied George Washington's attempts to retrieve her.

Ona Judge

<div>Marian A. Van Landingham (born September 10, 1937) encourages artistic spirit and volunteerism in her community. She was born in Albany, Georgia. In 1973, as the president of the Alexandria Art League, Van Landingham led a movement to renovate a dilapidated torpedo factory on the Potomac River and transform it into a center for artists' galleries, classrooms, and studio spaces. She not only handled much of the politicking but also pitched in on the manual labor of renovation. The Torpedo Factory Art Center opened in 1974 and has become an innovative space for working artists as well as the centerpiece of the revitalized historic downtown Alexandria.</div><div><br></div><div>In 1980 Van Landingham established the organization that became Volunteer Alexandria to match prospective volunteers with organizations in need of help. As a member of the House of Delegates from 1982 to 2005, she fought to increase funding for human services, education, healthcare, and aid for the homeless. Van Landingham was the first woman to chair the important Committee on Privileges and Elections. She has received numerous awards for her public service, and several annual service awards bear her name. &nbsp; Always an artist at heart, Van Landingham still keeps a studio at the Torpedo Factory Art Center. One of her favorite themes is the depiction of pathways or doorways leading away into the distance. Of the theme she says, "On a path there is always the possibility of discovery."<br><br><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small><br></div>

Shortly before beginning her legislative career, Marian A. Van Landingham founded the Torpedo Factory, a one-of-a-kind art center, in Alexandria.

Marian A. Van Landingham

Known as “the first lady of software,” “Amazing Grace,” and “Grandma COBOL,” Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (1906–1992) was a pioneer in computer science. Born in New York City, she received a Ph.D. in mathematics and physics from Yale University in 1934, four years after marrying Vincent Foster Hopper, an educator. During World War II she joined the United States Naval Reserves and was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project at Harvard University, where she programmed the first large-scale computer in the United States. At the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (later Sperry Rand) she helped design UNIVAC, the first large-scale commercial computer. In 1952 Hopper began writing a computer program for business-oriented tasks. FLOW-MATIC, her 1955 program, became a model for COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language), the first computer language that allowed operators to use words rather than number code in programming. After a moth trapped in a relay shut down a computer, Hopper coined the computer terms “bug” (referring to a problem or glitch) and “debug” (to remove a programming error). In 1985 she became the United States Navy’s first female rear admiral. <br><br>Throughout her career in mathematics, computer technology, and the navy—all fields dominated by men—Hopper continually had to prove herself. She observed, “If you do something once, people will call it an accident. If you do it twice, they call it a coincidence. But do it a third time and you’ve just proven a natural law!” Trying to fight what she called human beings’ allergy to change, she kept a clock on her wall that ran counterclockwise. Hopper retired to Arlington County, Virginia, in 1986 and became a consultant for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). She died in 1992 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. A guided missile destroyer, commissioned in 1997, bears her name.<br><br><div><div><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></div><div><small><br></small></div></div>

Grace Murray Hopper Memorial Park honors computer pioneer and naval rear admiral Grace Hopper, who lived in the nearby RiverHouse development.

Grace Brewster Murray Hopper 

<div>A New Jersey native, Eleanor Bontecou (February 14, 1891–March 19, 1976) studied law at Harvard University under Felix Frankfurter and received a Ph.D. in 1928 from the Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government (later the Brookings Institution). A promising start as a law professor at the University of Chicago was cut short when she contracted encephalitis lethargica (sleeping sickness). Bontecou spent most of the 1930s bedridden and disabled. She never fully recovered her health and exhibited impaired balance and a slight tremor in her hands for the rest of her life.</div><div><br></div><div>Bontecou provided legal advice to the Southern Conference for Human Welfare in its campaign to abolish the poll tax and also worked with Ralph Bunche on a survey of southern suffrage for the New School for Social Research and the Carnegie Foundation Study of the Negro in America.</div><div><br></div><div>In 1943 Bontecou became one of the first seven attorneys in the new Civil Rights Section of the Criminal Division at the United States Department of Justice, where she earned a reputation as the most able attorney on issues of race and in cases of discrimination against Japanese Americans. She completed a study of the way the United States and the allied nations had treated conscientious objectors during World War I and recommended solutions to conscientious objector problems in World War II. Transferred to the War Department in 1946, she helped prepare for the prosecution of major war criminals in the Pacific theater and the following year went to Nürnberg to inspect and report on war crimes activities in Germany. In retirement in the 1950s, Bontecou devoted her legal expertise and energy to victims of McCarthy-era hysteria by counseling, and in some cases raising money for, federal government employees charged with subversion.</div><div><br></div><div>A law professorship at Seton Hall University bears her name.<br><br><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><br></div>

Attorney Eleanor Bontecou built her home on South Arlington Ridge Road (now on South Lynn Street) in 1936, a few years before she joined the Civil Rights Section of the U.S. Justice Department's Criminal Division.

Eleanor Bontecou 

Mary A. Marshall (June 14, 1921–October 15, 1992) represented Arlington County in the House of Delegates from 1966 to 1969 and again from 1972 until 1991. After studying political science at Swarthmore College, from which she graduated with honors, she worked for the U.S. Department of Justice during World War II. The mother of three daughters, Marshall got involved in politics during the 1950s to keep Arlington's public schools open when the state's policy of Massive Resistance threatened to close schools that obeyed federal court orders to desegregate. She sponsored voter registration drives and was the first woman elected chair of the county's Democratic Committee before winning election to the General Assembly.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<br><br>Marshall was a strong supporter of public education, health care, help for the mentally ill, and issues relating to children and the environment. During the 1970s she was a leader in the unsuccessful attempt to have the General Assembly ratify the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Smart and funny, Marshall was a skilled legislator and served on some of the most important House committees, including Privileges and Elections. For her last six years in the assembly she was chair of the Committee on Counties, Cities, and Towns, which was of critical interest to her Northern Virginia constituents, and during her last term she was also a member of the influential House Committee on Appropriations. Considered one of Northern Virginia's most effective delegates and sometimes spoken of as the likely first female Speaker of the House, Marshall retired from politics in 1991.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<br><br><small>Reprinted by permission of the Library of Virginia.</small>

Mary A. Marshall advocated public education and equal rights as a member of the General Assembly for more than twenty years, and Arlington County recognized her work on behalf of its residents when it named a community-based assisted living residence in her honor.

Mary A. Marshall

<div>An innovative educator and administrator, Sister Marie Majella Berg (1916–2004)&nbsp;served as president of Marymount University for more than thirty years and transformed the school from a small, all-female, junior college to a large, coeducational university with several campuses. Born Mae Katherine Berg in Brooklyn, New York, she entered the order of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary in 1934. As a Catholic nun, she took the name Sister Marie Majella. Sister Majella received a bachelor’s degree in Latin from Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York, and a master’s degree in classics from Fordham University before joining the faculty of the Marymount School in New York City, where she taught for twelve years. In 1948 she became the registrar and a professor of classics at Marymount Manhattan College.</div><div><br></div><div>In 1960 Sister Majella was appointed president of Marymount College of Virginia, in Arlington County. Inheriting a two-year school with 240 students, she spent her first decade as president raising the number and quality of academic offerings, attracting new faculty, and expanding the student body. Using her outstanding relationship-building and fund-raising skills, she attracted a sizable endowment that allowed for the construction of many new buildings on the college’s original site and the acquisition of two new campuses in Ballston and Sterling, Virginia. The college began offering bachelor’s degrees in 1973, and in 1986 it achieved university status and became fully coeducational. By the time Sister Majella retired in 1993, Marymount offered thirty-eight undergraduate programs and twenty-three graduate degree programs to a student body of nearly 4,000. Sister Majella held honorary doctorates of humane letters from Georgetown University (1970) and Marymount Manhattan College (1983). At the time of her death in 2004 she was the longestserving woman college president in the nation.<br><br><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><br></div>

Sister Marie Majella Berg transformed Marymount University from a junior college for women to a coeducational university as its president from 1960 to 1993.

Sister Marie Majella Berg 

<p>Sharifa Alkhateeb (June 6, 1946–October 21, 2004) was born into the only Muslim family in her neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When confronted with different ways of thinking or living, she saw an opportunity to learn and grow. At the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a degree in English literature, Alkhateeb joined the Muslim Student Association and began wearing a headscarf. Surrounded by the burgeoning feminist movement of the 1960s, she cultivated her own voice as an activist and leader on behalf of Muslim women. She later earned a master's degree in comparative religion from Norwich University in Vermont.  </p><p><br /></p><p>After moving to Fairfax County in 1988 she continued her work to create a better understanding of Islamic life and became known as a spokesperson on Muslim women in the United States. She founded the North American Council for Muslim Women and served as president of the Muslim Education Council. Working with Fairfax County Public Schools, she led a successful effort to offer Arabic as a foreign language in some high schools, served as a diversity trainer, and helped produce a monthly television program, Middle Eastern Parenting. In 2000 Alkhateeb started the Peaceful Families Project, a nationwide effort to research and raise awareness of domestic violence in Muslim communities. She participated in the Community Resilience Project of Northern Virginia to provide crisis counseling following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Shortly before her death from cancer, the Islamic Society of North America honored Alkhateeb with its Community Service Recognition Award.</p><p><br /></p><p>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</p>

Sharifa Alkhateeb worked tirelessly to strengthen communities and bridge Islamic and American cultures as an activist, leader, scholar, writer, and educator, including as a diversity trainer for Fairfax County Public Schools, headquartered in Falls Church.  

Sharifa Alkhateeb

<div>Dorothy Shoemaker McDiarmid (October 22, 1906–June 8, 1994) represented parts of Fairfax County in the House of Delegates from 1960 to 1962, from 1964 to 1970, and from 1972 to 1989. A Texas native, she grew up around Washington, D.C., earned a B.S. at Swarthmore College, and became a teacher in Northern Virginia. In 1959 she ran for a seat in the General Assembly, hoping to keep the public schools open when the Democratic Party's leadership had adopted a policy of Massive Resistance to court-ordered school desegregation, and the governor had actually closed some schools rather than let them be desegregated. McDiarmid was a champion of public schools and also promoted legislation to improve services for children and women, including adding kindergarten to the public school schedule.</div><div><br></div><div>An able and highly respected legislator, McDiarmid was one of the most influential women ever elected to the House of Delegates and the first woman to serve on its powerful Committee on Rules. From 1986 until she retired, McDiarmid chaired the House Committee on Appropriations, the first woman to preside over the committee that produced the state's budget. McDiarmid was also a determined advocate for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Submitted to the states by Congress in 1972, it was never approved by the General Assembly. After retiring from the assembly in 1989, she continued to work on issues that were important to her and served as vice chair of the Governor's Commission on Educational Opportunity for All Virginians.<br><br><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><br></div>

A leader in Virginia's House of Delegates where she championed the rights of women and children, Dorothy Shoemaker McDiarmid was also an avid member of the Ayr Hill Garden Club, which dedicated its Children's Discovery Garden, now located near Vienna's Caboose, in her memory in 2004.

Dorothy Shoemaker McDiarmid

<div>A dedicated teacher, Louise A. Reeves Archer (October 23, 1893–April 1, 1948) brought Vienna’s African American community together in service to its school. Louise Reeves grew up in North Carolina and attended Livingstone College. She taught school in Southampton County, Virginia, where she married Romulus C. Archer Jr. in 1915. They moved to Washington, D.C., in 1922 and she continued her education, later earning a B.S. from Morgan State College.</div><div><br></div><div>In 1922 Archer became teacher and principal for a one-room segregated school in Vienna. Devoted to her students, she often transported children to school herself and worked to improve their learning experience. She organized a Parent-Teacher Association to raise funds for supplies and a new building, which opened in 1939 with three rooms. In 1941 students, parents, and faculty raised $300, which paid for a music teacher, bus expenses, kitchen supplies, and the installation of electric lights. Archer also established one of Fairfax County’s earliest 4-H Clubs for African Americans and her students participated in garden projects to raise vegetables for lunches prepared at school.</div><div><br></div><div>Archer provided a high-quality education. In addition to the academic curriculum, she taught sewing, cooking, music, and poetry to her students in fifth through seventh grades, which was then the highest level of public education available to African Americans in the county. After Archer’s death, families petitioned the county to name the school in her honor. Louise Archer Elementary School continues to remember her service to the community with an annual celebration in her honor.<br><br></div><div><i>Nominated by the 2011–2012 Fourth-Grade Classes of Kristin Beurmann and Lauren Wagner, Louise Archer Elementary School, Vienna.<br><br></i><div><div><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></div><div><small><br></small></div></div></div>

Louise Archer Elementary School was named for its highly respected teacher and principal, Louise Reeves Archer, who inspired her students through her dedication and commitment to their education.

Louise A. Reeves Archer 

<div>An innovative media executive and entrepreneur, Sheila Crump Johnson (born 1949) grew up in Maywood, Illinois. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Illinois, she taught music and perfected her skill on the violin. As a cultural liaison to the Middle East for the U.S. Information Agency, she helped establish the National Music Conservatory of Jordan.</div><div><br></div><div>In 1980 Johnson cofounded Black Entertainment Television, the first station focused on the needs, interests, and culture of African Americans. In addition to initiating successful programming for adult audiences, she created <i>Teen Summit</i>, a weekly show that allowed teenagers to talk candidly about important issues in their lives. Since selling her interest in BET in 2000, Johnson has focused on numerous real estate and business opportunities near Salamander Farm, her 200-acre property in Middleburg. She is president of the Washington Mystics, a Women’s National Basketball Association team, and also owns minority shares of the Washington Capitals and the Washington Wizards. She is a photographer and has designed a line of luxury linens.</div><div><br></div><div>Johnson has become one of the nation’s most notable philanthropists, particularly in education and the arts. She has made major gifts to the United Negro College Fund, the Hill School in Middleburg, Howard University, the Levine School of Music, and the Parsons School of Design. In 2002 her generous contributions established the Sheila Crump Johnson Institute at the State University of New York at Morrisville, which supports diversity and character building for students and the college community. Johnson’s leadership and her commitment to sharing the fruits of her success with others have brought her many honors, including recognition in 2006 by the <i>Dallas Morning News</i> as one of the nation’s most distinguished women leaders.<br><br><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><br></div>

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Sheila Crump Johnson established Salamander Market after she moved to Middleburg during the 1990s.

Sheila Crump Johnson

<div>Only the third woman to study mechanical engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (also known as Virginia Tech), Mary Jones (b. 1940)&nbsp;often tutored her male classmates before graduating with honors in 1962. The first woman licensed as a professional engineer in Virginia, she went on to earn an M.S. in mechanical engineering at the George Washington University. She began her professional career as a structural engineer for Atlantic Research Corporation (later part of Aerojet Rocketdyne), which developed rocket propulsion systems. Jones was recognized as an expert in solid propellant rocket motor design and was ARC's chief design engineer overseeing development of motors for the MLRS (multiple launch rocket system), the Stinger Missile, and the Tomahawk Booster. She served as the Executive Director of Engineering for Aerojet.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>In 1993 she was on the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board Committee on Advanced Space Technology that reviewed NASA's technology development program for small spacecraft. An active supporter of Virginia Tech, Jones served on the Board of Visitors (1984–1988) and in 1992 was the first woman to be awarded its University Distinguished Achievement Award. She was a charter member of the advisory board for both its College of Engineering and the Mechanical Engineering Department. In 2004 the College of Engineering inducted her into its Academy of Engineering Excellence. The Society of Women Engineers honored her professional accomplishments with its Upward Mobility Award in 1993 and named her a Fellow in 1998 for her contributions in supporting women in engineering. Jones is a Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.&nbsp;<br><br><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small><br></div><div><br></div>

A former executive director of Engineering at Aerojet in Gainesville, Mary Jones is an expert in solid propellant rocket motor design and serves as a role model for women in the engineering profession.

Mary Virginia Jones

<div>Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Hawaii, Elizabeth "Betty" Peet McIntosh (March 1, 1915–June 8, 2015) was working as a correspondent for the Scripps Howard news service near Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked the naval base on December 7, 1941. After the United States entered World War II, she returned to Washington, where she covered Eleanor Roosevelt and government activities. Fluent in Japanese, McIntosh was recruited in January 1943 to join the Office of Strategic Services, the country's wartime intelligence agency whose ranks included actress Marlene Dietrich and chef Julia Child. Operating in Burma, China, and India, McIntosh was one of the few women assigned to Morale Operations, where she helped produce false news reports, postcards, documents, and radio messages designed to spread disinformation that would undermine Japanese morale. &nbsp; &nbsp;<br><br>After the war McIntosh wrote a memoir of her OSS experiences, published in 1947 as <i>Undercover Girl</i>. She also wrote two children’s books, <i>Inki</i> (1957) and<i> Palace under the Sea</i> (1959). McIntosh continued in public service and worked on assignments for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Voice of America, the State Department, and the United Nations. In 1958 she joined the Central Intelligence Agency, successor to the OSS, where she worked until her retirement in 1973. Her book <i>Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS</i> (1998) describes the adventures of the brave women who served in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II.</div><div><br></div><div><i>Nominated by&nbsp;Linda McCarthy, Markham.<br><br></i><div><div><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></div><div><small><br></small></div></div></div>

After a career as an intelligence agent with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II and the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War, Elizabeth "Betty" McIntosh retired to Leesburg and later to the Lake Ridge at Westminster community in Woodbridge.

Elizabeth Peet McIntosh

<div>A native of Manila, Philippines, Corazon Sandoval Foley (b. 1950)&nbsp;earned a degree in economics at the University of the Philippines. She moved to the United States in 1970 to pursue an M.B.A. at the George Washington University and has lived with her family in Fairfax since 1980. Like her husband, she joined the U.S. Department of State, first working overseas with the foreign service. She later transferred to the civil service as a senior economic analyst for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, focusing on economic and commercial developments in East Asia and the Pacific region. She sponsored several Asian-American themed exhibitions at the State Department, including "Witness: Japanese American Soldiers of WWII who Helped Liberate Dachau" in 1999.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>After retiring in 2007, Foley pursued her interest in documenting the history and contributions of Filipinos and other Asian immigrants who compose a significant minority of the population in Fairfax County. With the support of the county's board of supervisors she developed the Fairfax County Asian American History Project to research, record, and preserve the experiences of Asian Americans in the region. The first book containing oral histories was published in 2010 and a second focusing on Asian Americans serving in local law enforcement and the military was published in 2013. Foley has also reached hundreds of senior citizens in her community through the Burke/West Springfield Senior Center without Walls, which she spearheaded to provide supportive programs for aging in place.&nbsp;<br><br><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><br></div><div><br></div>

A longtime parishoner at the Church of the Nativity, in Burke, Corazon Sandoval Foley is an advocate and leader for collecting stories of Asian American immigrants through oral history and research projects within her community.

Corazon Sandoval Foley

<div>As a high school senior in Woodbridge, Monica Beltran (b. 1985) joined the Virginia National Guard as a way to help fund college tuition costs. She was assigned to the 1710th Transportation Company, but in 2004 she was called up to complete the 1173d Transportation Company when it was deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In Iraq she volunteered for gun turret duty, although she had been trained as a truck driver. She worked to overcome the unease that some platoon members voiced regarding her youth and gender.</div><div><br></div><div>On October 26, 2005, Specialist Beltran was serving as a gunner for a gun truck on a combat logistics patrol. Responsible for providing security for equipment and fifty-five soldiers and contractors being transported to Forward Operating Base Suse, she was on the convoy's right flank. During an enemy attack, Beltran returned maximum suppressive fire while taking heavy fire from multiple rounds of small arms, heavy-caliber machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades. Despite suffering a wound to her left hand, she continued returning fire to ensure that the rear element of the convoy could pass safely through the mile-long kill zone. For her heroic service in the line of duty under hostile fire and adverse conditions, Beltran was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor on December 30, 2005, the first woman in the Virginia National Guard to receive the honor.</div><div><br></div><div>Promoted to sergeant in 2006, Beltran remains a member of the Virginia National Guard.</div><div><br></div><div><i>Nominated by John W. Listman Jr., Virginia National Guard Historical Collection, Fort Pickett, Blackstone.<br><br></i><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><i><br></i></div>

While a student at Gar-Field High School, Monica Beltran enlisted in the Virginia National Guard and later received a Bronze Star Medal for Valor for her heroic actions while under attack in Iraq.

Monica Beltran

<div>As a young girl in Puerto Rico, Providencia "Provi" Velazquez Gonzalez (May 14, 1917-February 21, 2013) often went without lunch so that she could share her food with others less fortunate. That same compassion defines her life today.</div><div><br></div><div>Gonzalez moved to New York in 1934 in order to continue nursing studies. On a visit to her former island home, she became dismayed at the lack of resources doctors had to treat cancer patients. After returning to New York, she organized a Latino marathon that raised $20,000 for Corazones Contra El Cancer (Hearts against Cancer), which donated the funds to a hospital in Puerto Rico for oncology research and treatment.</div><div><br></div><div>In New York, Gonzalez coordinated fashion shows for a sportswear company and also worked part-time as a news anchor and weather reporter for a Spanish-language radio station. In 1972 she moved to Virginia and settled in Dale City, where from 1993 until 2005 she ran the local farmers market. An active member of Holy Family Catholic Church, Gonzalez introduced the custom of celebrating Epiphany with a children's festival, as has traditionally been done in Puerto Rico. In addition to volunteering as a translator for those requiring help in court or with social services, she has assisted needy families in navigating through governmental red tape and also helped raise money to cover the catastrophic medical expenses of the uninsured.</div><div><br></div><div>Gonzalez has served on the Prince William County Commission on Aging and also on a task force that led to the creation of the county Human Rights Commission. Among other awards, she has been the Dale City Citizen of the Year and in 2006 received the Prince William County Human Rights Award for her humanitarian work and advocacy. Her example led the girls of Pauline Stoneburner's fourth-grade class at Belmont Elementary School in Woodbridge to nominate Gonzalez for statewide recognition as one of the 2008 Virginia Women in History.<br><br><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><br></div>

Community activist Providencia Gonzalez helped distribute food to the homebound, served as a translator in the local courts, and at age 75 became manager of Dale City's nascent farmers' market, located at a commuter parking lot.

Providencia Velazquez Gonzalez

<div>Born in Warrenton, Benita Fitzgerald Mosely (b. 1961) grew up in nearby Dale City, where at an early age she began to excel in both sports and academics. Her accomplishments in track and field competitions won her induction into the Virginia High School Hall of Fame and a full athletic scholarship to the University of Tennessee, where she earned a B.S. in industrial engineering. While at Tennessee, she was a fifteen-time All-American and won four National Collegiate Athletic Association titles, including three 100- meter hurdles outdoor championships. Moseley qualified as a member of the 1980 and the 1984 U.S. Olympic Teams and won her history-making gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles games. Mosley has been inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Tennessee’s Lady Volunteers Hall of Fame.</div><div><br></div><div>Early in the 1990s Mosley turned from competition to sports marketing and administration. She served as a regional director for Special Olympics International in Washington, D.C., as program director for the marketing division of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, and as director located in Colorado of the four Olympic training centers in the United States. She has been president of the board of the Women’s Sports Foundation and is a staunch advocate for expanding opportunities for young women in sports and fitness education. In 2001 the nonprofit Women in Cable and Telecommunications, a 4,500-member association based in Chantilly, Virginia, appointed Mosley as its president and chief operating officer. In 2004 Television Week Magazine named her Cable Television Executive of the Year.<br><br><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><br></div>

Dale City named a street for its hometown track star Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, an Olympic champion who serves as president and CEO of Women in Cable and Telecommunications and works to expand opportunities for young women in sports.

Benita Fitzgerald Mosley

<div>Soon after her marriage to Robert S. Barrett, an Episcopal minister, Katherine Harwood Waller Barrett (ca. 1857-23 February 1925)&nbsp;began caring for unmarried mothers and their children who were often treated as outcasts and had few opportunities to obtain medical care, occupational assistance, or a good education. Born in Falmouth, Stafford County, Kate Waller Barrett earned a medical degree in 1892 while living in Georgia, and after she moved to northern Virginia in 1896, she took part in founding the National Florence Crittenton Mission, the first philanthropic institution chartered by Congress, to care for unmarried mothers and their children.</div><div><br></div><div>First as vice president and then as president until her death in 1925, Barrett directed the national network of affiliated Crittenton mission homes and wrote and traveled throughout the world to raise money and promote good child care and other issues relating to women’s health and employment. Barrett was an honorary vice president of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia, a charter member of the Virginia League of Women Voters, and a member of the board of visitors of the College of William and Mary. She took an active role in Democratic Party politics in order to advance her work on behalf of women’s issues. She was president of the National Council of Women in 1911 and in 1919 was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson as an observer to the Versailles Peace Congress. After her death, the governor of Virginia ordered the flag on the State Capitol to be lowered to half-staff, the first time a woman had ever been so honored.<br><br><div><div><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></div><div><small><br></small></div></div><br><br></div>

Social reformer and Stafford County native Kate Waller Barrett devoted her life to providing needed medical care, shelter, education, and training for unmarried mothers and their children. She is buried at Aquia Church, where her husband had served as rector. 

Virginia Women in History - Northern Virginia Region

Sarah A. Gray

Introduction

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Backstory and Context

Additional Information