In 1961, Blacksburg High School became the first in Montgomery County to admit African American students, paving the way for full integration of all county high schools by 1966.
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling outlawed segregation, Montgomery County resisted. The school board leaned on “states’ rights” arguments and used tactics from Virginia’s Gray Commission—such as controlling student assignments and offering tuition grants to white families—to delay integration for years.
Amidst this resistance, three students from Christiansburg Institute applied to transfer to the all-white Blacksburg High School, which then enrolled about 900 students. They were siblings Phillip H. Price (15) and Ann Christine Price (13), along with Jacqueline Iris Lewis (14). With support from NAACP attorney Reuben E. Lawson of Roanoke, their applications went before the State Pupil Placement Board. Phillip and Ann Christine were admitted for the 1961 school year, but Jacqueline’s request was denied on the grounds of “academic standards”—a requirement never applied to white students.
On August 23, 1961, Jacqueline and her father, Walter H. Lewis, traveled to Roanoke for the hearing, an intimidating experience for a 14-year-old. The Board delayed its ruling for a week before denying her appeal. That fall, Jacqueline remained at Christiansburg Institute.
That September, Phillip and Ann Christine Price became the first Black students to integrate Montgomery County schools when they walked into Blacksburg High. According to researcher Tracy A. Martin, they were not alone—their white neighbors walked beside them in solidarity. This act of courage followed a chilling warning: on April 29, 1961, a ten-foot burning cross had been discovered on the school grounds, South Main Street.
In 1962, the school board again delayed the application process for two more students seeking admission. Yearbooks from 1961–1964 suggest that the Price siblings were the only African American students at Blacksburg High during those early years. In the years that followed, more students of color began to appear in the yearbooks. By 1966, the school board closed Christiansburg Institute, and all of the county’s white high schools were finally opened to every student.
Phillip H. PriceAnn Christine Price
Newspaper Articles
April 1961
04 April 1961 Daily Progress04 April 1961 The Free Lance-Star04 April 1961, Roanoke Times04 April 1961 Martinsville Bulletin13 April, 1961 The World-News13 April 1961, Roanoke Times13 April 1961 News & Advance14 April 1961 The World News17 April 1961 The World-News19 April 1961, Ledger-Star30 April 1961 “Cross Burned on Blacksburg School Grounds” Roanoke Times
July 1961
26 July 1961 Richmond News Leader26 July 1961 Danville Register & Bee31 July 1961 The World-News
August 1961
01 August 1961 Roanoke Times10 August 1961 Roanoke Times21 August 1961 The World News23 August 1961, Danville Register & Bee23 August 1961 The World News29 August 1961 The News and Advance
September 1961
05 September The Richmond News Leader05 September 1961 The Ledger-Star06 September 1961 The Richmond Times Dispatch 06 September 1961 The Virginia Pilot06 September 1961 The News and Advance05 September The Ledger-Star
1962 Application of Two Young Women, the Courts Ruling
18 May 1962 Roanoke Times14 July News and Advance08 October 1962 Daily Advance
The Formation of Montgomery County, Virginia and Why it Matters to Regional African American History
When Virginia’s earliest European colonial settlers first pushed westward beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains, they entered the border lands already inhabited by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. As Europeans laid claim to these territories in the 18th century, Virginia’s county boundaries began shifting rapidly to keep pace and the need for local governance.
At first, all of western Virginia was considered part of vast counties based far to the east. Augusta County, created in 1738, stretched from the Blue Ridge to the Mississippi River—a landmass so large it was nearly impossible to govern effectively. As settlement expanded, Augusta was gradually carved into smaller counties.
Botetourt County was created in 1770 out of Augusta, and just two years later, in 1772, Fincastle County was formed to cover the far southwest. But Fincastle itself was short-lived: in 1776, it was split into three new counties—Montgomery, Washington, and Kentucky (the latter eventually becoming the Commonwealth of Kentucky).
Thus, Montgomery County was officially established in 1776, named in honor of General Richard Montgomery, a Revolutionary War hero.
Like most early counties, Montgomery did not remain the same size for long. As population grew and communities demanded closer courts and local representation, Montgomery’s original boundaries were gradually reduced.
1790: Wythe County was formed from Montgomery. 1790: Parts of Montgomery contributed to the creation of Kanawha County (now in West Virginia). 1806: Giles County was carved from Montgomery, Monroe, Wythe, and Tazewell. 1806–1830s: Additional shifts continued, with Montgomery giving land to Floyd (1831), Pulaski (1839), and others.
By the mid-19th century, Montgomery County had taken on the approximate shape we recognize today.
Why this matters
Tracing these changing boundaries shows how the western border lands of Virginia evolved from a vast Indigenous landscape into the network of counties we know today. When we study Montgomery County’s formation and its changing borders, we are not only tracking political geography—we’re also uncovering how those shifts shaped the daily realities of enslaved people and freedmen. The “line on a map” often meant the difference between where families were recorded, where they could live, and how they could begin to claim freedom and opportunity.
County seats like Christiansburg were not only centers of trade and government but also the location of the slave market and the courthouse records that tracked the lives of enslaved people. After emancipation, those same courts became the places where freedmen registered marriages, secured contracts, and sought land. As county lines shifted, so too did the jurisdictions that controlled access to justice, opportunity, and community life.
Further Discussion on How Shifting Boundaries Change Lives
Laws & Records
When county boundaries changed, so did the courthouse where records were kept. For enslaved people, this meant that bills of sale, wills, deeds, and manumission papers might end up filed under different counties as the boundaries shifted. After emancipation, the same was true for marriage licenses, labor contracts, and land purchases by freedmen. This scattering of records makes it both complicated when tracing family histories.
Shaping Community, Labor & Education
County lines determined where enslaved people were forced to labor, where patrols were organized, and where courts enforced slavery laws. After emancipation, those same boundaries shaped freedmen’s access to work, land, and schools. For example, as new counties like Giles or Pulaski were created from Montgomery, Freeman might find themselves suddenly in a different jurisdiction, dealing with a new local power structure.
Education also reflected these divisions. Freedmen near Christiansburg had better access to schools supported by the Freedmen’s Bureau, while those in rural reaches of the county received little help.
Courts and Law
During slavery, county seats (like Christiansburg) were centers of trade, law, and the slave market. Enslaved people were taken to county courts for sales, trials, and punishment. After emancipation, those same county seats became the centers where freedmen registered marriages, secured legal recognition, and later sought protection under Reconstruction policies.
Land, Freedom, and Mobility
For freedmen, land ownership was key to independence. But access to land varied widely from one county to another, depending on who owned large estates, which lands were subdivided, and how local officials treated Black landholders. County boundaries thus shaped the possibilities of building self-sustaining communities after emancipation.
Pulaski County Reconnaissance Survey, created by Gibson Worsham, Dan Pezzoni, and many others, is such a valuable resource. It provides vital insights into African American history in Southwest Virginia and the greater Central Appalachian region, helping us better understand the interconnected stories that shaped our communities.
Montgomery County, Virginia, has never existed in isolation.
The people who have lived here—whether by choice, through enslavement or servitude, or as Indigenous communities who established towns long before European arrival—moved across boundaries freely. They traveled, traded, fought, buried their dead, and carried out the everyday work of survival across what later became county lines.
This is why the Pulaski County Reconnaissance Survey, created by Gibson Worsham, Dan Pezzoni, and many others, is such a valuable resource. It provides vital insights into African American history in Southwest Virginia and the greater Central Appalachian region, helping us better understand the interconnected stories that shaped our communities.
This report is fully searchable and contains valuable early documentation on African American schools, churches, and communities. It also includes a generalized map that highlights both early European settlements and land tracts. For example, Dunkard’s Bottom—now submerged beneath Claytor Lake—was once part of an early German settlement.
The report also identifies significant Scotch-Irish tracts such as Draper Valley/Peak Mountain, Harrison, Robinson, Springfield, and Thorn Spring. It notes the communities of Newbern and New Dublin, along with the region’s main transportation routes: Traders Path/Leadmine Road, the Great Road/Wilderness Road/Southwestern Turnpike, Peppers Ferry Road, and the Dublin/Giles Turnpike.
The report offers a clear explanation of the early Importation and Treasury Rights system used to claim land (see pages 23–24). For further detail, see F.B. Kegley, Kegley’s Virginia Frontier, Roanoke, VA: Southwest Virginia Historical Society, 1938. p. 59.
The report contains interesting data about the enslaved, noted on page 44. Also, the churches and New River Village is discussed beginning on page 56.
In Pulaski the pattern of large landholding influenced the ownership of slaves. Whereas in Montgomery County there were 2,219 slaves, and in Pulaski only 1,589 in 1859, eight slaveholders had more than fifty slaves in Pulaski while only two landowners in Montgomery possessed as many. In both counties, however, the majority of owners possessed ten or fewer slaves. During the Civil War, the Confederacy began requisitioning slaves to work in the war effort. At the beginning of the war many slaves were requisitioned and shipped to Richmond to fortify the state capital. In the following three years slaves were requisitioned four times so that by 1865 the county found it could no longer comply as it was being drained of free and slave manpower, food supplies and money.
Timeline was created for the 2030 Comprehensive Plan of Pulaski County
A Note on the Language in the County’s Comprehensive Plan
As part of Montgomery County’s 30-year Comprehensive Plan, a historical timeline was created. While the dates provided are generally accurate, the language used to describe Indigenous people and borderlands does not align with our values.
We want our readers to be aware that these depictions reflect the language of the plan’s authors—not the values or beliefs of this website. Our commitment is to present history in a way that acknowledges the dignity, presence, and contributions of all people who have lived in this region.
Note that the African American community of “New River” came to exist after emancipation.
Gathering African American History 