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So what was inside the time capsule?

Last week we shared a post on the time capsule being opened at Armstrong High. Here’s an article to describe the day!

From the Richmond Times Dispatch:

No one knew what was inside.

Alumni from Richmond’s Armstrong High School gathered Saturday to watch the opening of a time capsule that was discovered in a cornerstone of their old school when it was torn down in late 2016.

The school that was demolished to make way for a residential development holds a special place of pride for many. When they attended, it was one of two black high schools in Richmond during the Jim Crow era. The school, at 1611 N. 31st St., was completed in 1952 and held classes until 2004. After that, the school moved to the former John F. Kennedy High School, now Armstrong, where alumni gathered Saturday.

The ceremony was sponsored by the Armstrong High School Alumni Coalition Inc.

The school’s teachers during the era of segregation were not allowed to attend graduate school in Virginia because they were black. Many of the school’s alumni went on to great success.

Lucille Brown, an alumna who became the school’s first female principal after George Peterson Jr. retired in 1974, remembers them well.

Now 89 years old, she narrated the contents of the time capsule as Meg Hughes of The Valentine, wearing latex gloves, carefully pulled items from the copper box that had been encased with the cornerstone.

The box was carried into the Armstrong auditorium by John Dorman, a 1966 alumni and Vietnam War veteran who was the captain of the school’s cadet corps.

Inside were newspapers, school memorabilia and other documents from the past.”

It is a great read. Check it out!

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