Virginia Teachers Association

African American educators organized the Virginia Teachers' Reading Circle here at the Jackson Street Methodist Episcopal Church on 13 Aug. 1887. Established during a session of the Peabody Normal Institute, a summer course for teachers from across the state, the Reading Circle provided professional development for teachers of black students in Virginia’s public schools. James Hugo Johnston, second president of what is now Virginia State University, was elected to lead the organization. Later known as the Virginia Teachers Association, the group served black educators until it merged with the Virginia Education Association on 1 Jan. 1967.