Eudora Lyles was an advocate for fair housing, founder of the Inner City Civic Association and a member of the United Way Housing Committee. Lyles was one of Parker-Gray High School’s first graduates. A gifted musician who taught herself to play the piano and ukulele, she used her gift to entertain the military at the local USO, and once, Robert Kennedy at the prestigious Jockey Club in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Ella O. Lewis
Activist
Ella O. Lewis was one of the first women to serve on jury duty in Virginia. She served as a member of the Hopkins Settlement House Board where she developed a program to find and train Black couples to serve as foster parents. At Ebenezer Baptist Church, she was Chair of the Trustee Board and the first female Sunday school superintendent.
Morris R. Siebert
Community Activist
Native Alexandrian Morris Siebert is an example of the concept of “paying it forward.” Siebert, a protégé of Coach Louis Johnson, continued Johnson’s legacy of service and mentorship to African American youth in the City of Alexandria. After his discharge from the Army in 1945, he returned to Parker-Gray, graduated with the class of 1948. In 1950, he joined the Alexandria Recreation Department where he worked at the Parker-Madden Playground, and for years, in many of the City’s recreation centers. During the day, Siebert worked as a clerk for the Department of Defense’s Army Adjutant General Office, located in the Pentagon. Siebert retired from government service in 1990, with more than 35 years of service. For more than 20 years, he served as a model mentor and coach. Siebert retired from government service in 1990, with more than 35 years of service. Read more
The Thompsons Legacy
Activist / Public Servants
Native The Thompson family legacy began with Clayton “Bunny” Thompson and Irene Drayton Thompson, the parents of Clayton Jr., Christopher, and Kendall. Their three sons are the first trio of African American siblings to serve simultaneously as professional firefighters in the same fire department (Fairfax County, VA) in the United States. Together the Thompson brothers have over a century of expertise in fire and all-hazards response, paramedicine, training, fire system inspection, community outreach, recruitment, lobbying, fire administration, federal funding, health and safety, and more. They all serve as industry advocates and are viewed as mentors and role models by many in their community and around the U.S. Read more
Dorothy Turner
Community Activist
Native Alexandrian Dorothy Turner was an advocate for fair housing for under-represented tenants and was the first president of the Alexandria Tenants Council. This organization, of which she was a founder, was the first in the state of Virginia to defend the rights of public housing tenants.
Thomas “Pete” Jones
Community Activist
Thomas “Pete” Jones worked hard to rid public housing units in Alexandria of drugs. In 1990, in the utmost secrecy, President George H. W. Bush met with Jones and a group of local leaders at the Charles Houston Recreation Center to support their efforts. Jones truly cared about those living in low-income housing and made sure they had a voice.
Earl L. Cook
Alexandria Chief of Police
Earl Cook, an Alexandria native, graduated from T.C. Williams High School and was an outstanding member of the historic Titan football team. He attended Duke University. In 1979 he began his professional career as a police academy recruit. After 30 years of service, in 2009, Cook became the first African American in Alexandria’s 260-year history to serve as the Chief of Police.
Ferdinand T. Day
Trailblazer / Civil Rights Activist
Ferdinand T. Day, born August 7, 1918, was the Alexandria native selected as the first African American Chairman of a public school board in the State of Virginia, when he became Chairman of the Alexandria School Board in 1964. In 1985 he was selected by the Secretary of Education to assist in further implementation of the Virginia desegregation plan for higher education.
Alexandria African American Hall of Fame
Eudora Lyles
Morris R. Siebert
The Thompsons Legacy
Dorothy Turner
Thomas “Pete” Jones
