News & Events

Bulldogs from two generations came together on February 26 to present a Black History Month lesson about the important history of a neighborhood just across the street from Norfolk Academy: L & J Gardens.

Dr. Jesse Anderson '75, the first Black student to attend Norfolk Academy, spoke to Upper and Middle School about the discriminatory housing practice of redlining, and his upbringing in L & J Gardens, now on the Virginia Landmarks Register. Anderson went on from NA to Morehouse College and the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine, and returned home to join his father's podiatry practice.

Anderson was introduced by his daughter, Whitney, an NA junior, and shared reflections during an onstage interview with editors of The Belfry, Noor Swanson '25 and Leo Tang '25.

Discrimination during the Jim Crow era combined with media coverage reinforced misperceptions that Black neighborhoods were poor, and the inhabitants were not educated, Anderson said. L& J Gardens, started by a Black developer and a group of investors, was a neighborhood for Black professionals; it was solidly middle class and nearly every adult there had graduated from college and many had graduate degrees. After Anderson's parents enrolled him at the Academy in 1970 as an 8th grader, he demonstrated that point to his new friends, particularly his football teammates, by welcoming them into his home.

“That was a bond! They were my brothers," Anderson said.

Two of those friends, Richard Diamonstein '75 and Tom Nicholson '75, joined students in Johnson Theater for the presentation. The Class of 1975 was a close-knit group, Diamonstein said to Anderson and the audience, and Anderson helped forge that love. “You were an important part of our education."