Arlington Spotlights: Saundra Green

Saundra Green is a lifelong resident of Arlington and a former employee of Arlington County’s Parks and Recreation department. Saundra’s family roots are deep in Arlington’s Halls Hill (High View Park) neighborhood, one of the first historically Black neighborhoods in Arlington, dating back to 1881.

We got to sit down with Saundra and learn about her experiences growing up in Arlington, the work she’s done within her community and some of her most proud accomplishments.

What was it like growing up in Arlington?

My childhood years were in the 1950s and I grew up in segregated Arlington. I went to Langston Elementary School, here in High View (Halls Hill) which was segregated at the time. Then I went on to Hoffman-Boston High School, the only junior and senior high school for African Americans at the time. I was only there for one year, then I entered Stratford Junior High School in September of 1959. The schools integrated in February of 1959; the first four students went. I went that September with the next group of students.

I worked for the Arlington Department of Parks and Recreation for 29 years. I was assigned initially to the Halls Hill community, and I worked at Langston-Brown Community Center. I was in charge of initiating and developing recreation programs in the community where I lived. I go to church here, my church is Calloway United Methodist. My children went to school here, so my life has been in this community.

Tell us a bit about the history of Halls Hill and the community.

Growing up, the community was segregated. So everything that we did was in this little area. We didn’t venture out much at all, and life was good here in our community. We had traditions here, people here were well-connected. Everything that we did was to survive against all the challenges that were in the world against African Americans. Our life was here. We had businesses, we had social events, we had annual traditions, we had our own fire department, which was started because no one would put out our fires. So our community organized a fire department, which became an official fire department that’s still here today.

Pictured | Halls Hill Volunteer Fire Department, taken on the grounds of the John M. Langston Elementary School
Credit | Arlington County Public Library

When I was growing up the hub of our communities were the churches, that’s where things happened. Those were the largest buildings that we owned, so a lot of important things happened there. The churches weren’t only for worship then, they served in many capacities. Any important meetings in the community took place in the churches. The fight to desegregate public facilities in schools took place in our churches. There were a lot of things that went on In our community that had to do with making our community a better place and efforts to make life better for African Americans.

Pictured | Calloway United Methodist Church

Why do you feel that knowing about this history is important to the local community and visitors?

A lot of the history that was developed by African Americans is very significant. One example would be the integration of schools here; When the schools integrated in 1959, we were the first place in the state of Virginia to integrate schools. The first four students came from right here in High View Park (Halls Hill.) That’s history.

Pictured | Ronald Deskins, Michael Jones, Lance Newman, and Gloria Thompson walked into Stratford Junior High School on February 2, 1959.
Credit | Photo courtesy of Arlington Public Library

Can you share some of your accomplishments?

As an employee of Parks and Recreation I initiated a lot of programs. For years and years, the parks department was segregated and even when it integrated there were not a lot of opportunities for the African American youth to be involved in the performing arts. I initiated The Arlington Youth Street Theater program, which was initially to introduce performing arts to African American children. It was a youth employment program for the summers and the students would come participate, it was a paid experience, and they were trained in dance, vocal music and spoken word. At the end of each summer, they would perform throughout the county. They got so good that they even went to New York every summer to perform.

Based on Arlington’s history and your life experience, how do you think things stand in the county in terms of progress?

Arlington County has come a long way. Growing up here I’ve seen both sides; I’ve seen Arlington at its worst because I grew up in that era where things were challenging, and we couldn’t do a lot of things in Arlington. I have now lived long enough to see a lot of those things change for the better. I feel that Arlington has been one of the most progressive counties in the state of Virginia in terms of recognizing those things that were unjust and turning them around. We’ve had county officials and people in places that other counties have not had representation. Do we have a ways to go? Yeah. Like everybody else, we’re not there yet. But you see the initiatives always happening in Arlington to move forward.

Author

Paola Fernandez