Criser High School

Coordinates: 38°54′27.5″N 78°11′27.1″W / 38.907639°N 78.190861°W / 38.907639; -78.190861

Criser High School was an all-black school accommodating grades 1-12 constructed in 1959 in the Northern Virginia town of Front Royal, Virginia. Its opening occurred the same year 22 black students integrated the all-white Warren County High School which drew national media attention.

After the Stanley plan, the legislative package implementing the massive resistance policies of Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. were found to be unconstitutional by federal courts, Criser High School was built to prevent total integration of Warren County High School. Its first and only principal, James W. McClendon came to Front Royal from Farmville, Va. where he taught agriculture at the R.R. Moton School in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Prince Edward County closed their entire school system for five years refusing to integrate.

Located on the south side of Front Royal, Virginia, in its predominantly black neighborhood, Criser High School also provided education for African American students from the surrounding communities of Bentonville, Limeton, Guard Hill, Milldale, Bayard, Reliance, Riverton, Rockland and Happy Creek. With an initial student population of 300 plus, African American instructors from various Historically Black Colleges were recruited to make up its competent corp of teachers. Some of the initial high school instructors came from the Prince Edward County School system where they had witnessed the shutting down of their entire public system of education for 5 consecutive years. The consolidation of the Warren and Rappahannock school systems introduced black students from Huntly, Flint Hill,Little Washington,and Sperryville,to its school population but yet the overall student enrollment continued to decline. The school closed its doors in 1966 due to further declining enrollment as it saw a major exodus of its students opting to attend Warren County High School in search of a purported better education and to fulfill a driving need to satisfy the wishes of Front Royal's integrationist constituency.

Criser reached its zenith in the early sixties and it was these formative years of the band that music instructor Geraldine Jackson established the foundation of its music legacy. Appearing on the nationally known Ted Mack amateur hour she showed her proficiency playing the Baritone horn. Later it was under the direction of music instructor John Easley, from Langston University, that the Black and Gold Lancers became marching band favorites of the Annual Apple Blossom Festival, Front Royal Christmas Parade, and the Hagerstown Halloween Parade. Frank Threatts of Richmond inaugurated and coached its sports program and in 1962 McKinley Armstrong significantly expanded it to include Baseball along with Track and Field competition. Criser competed with other Historically Black Virginia High Schools in a local district that comprised Douglas of Winchester; Johnson-Williams of Berryville; West Luray; and Lucy Simms of Harrisonburg. Beyond their district their competition included Douglass of Leesburg; W.C. Taylor of Warrenton; George Washington Carver of Culpepper; Luther P. Jackson of Merrifield; Hoffman-Boston of Arlington; Booker T. Washington of Staunton; Central Augusta of Staunton and of course Jennie Dean of Mannassas.

Today the school still stands and has since been renamed Ressie Jeffries Elementary School by the Warren County School Board. Ressie Jeffries, Front Royal's educational black matriarch, was the town's most notable educator and served as principal at the Front Royal School For Coloreds prior to Criser's existence.