02/23/2026
We always honor our Cornland School alumni, but especially now during Black History Month. On Nov. 16, 2013, Cornland School Foundation held a reunion for the alumni. It was a great time for them to reunite and for everyone else to hear their stories of perseverance, learning, friendships, and treasured memories. Students from Grassfield High School’s Human Geography course conducted oral history interviews. On February 2, 2014, the Virginian Pilot featured an article from that reunion titled “taunts, long walks and a smoky stove”. If you are a Virginian Pilot subscriber, you can access this article in their archives. It is a powerful testament to the trials and tribulations experienced during the “separate but equal” time of segregation in education.
Alumni, Eula Riddick Brooks and Randolph “Randy” Snead, were two of several who were featured. They both have since passed, as have others. Cornland School once sat on private property owned by Randy and his wife, Wanza. We are so grateful that they and the Snead family were willing to part with the school so that future generations might learn what education in Norfolk County was like during the time of segregation.
Eula Riddick and her twin sister, Beulah, were the youngest of 11. They walked to and from school 5 miles each way. This was common for Cornland kids with no bus until 1941. Eula spoke of how the White kids would yell hateful things out the windows of their bus as they passed and sometimes threw objects. She told of learning in a 20x30 room with no electricity or running water. They had only one teacher for all 7 grades and used textbooks discarded by the White schools.
Randy Snead attended Cornland School through the 5th grade, then went to Southeastern Elem. (then all Black), and on to Crestwood High School to graduate. He earned a BA in math from Virginia Union University and, while there, took part in sit-ins at lunch counters to protest segregated restaurants. He landed a job in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and found discrimination existed there, too. They had separate bathrooms for Whites and Blacks and he said, “and naturally, the way I am, I went into the wrong one knowing I was wrong. Nobody bothered me.” At that particular time, he couldn’t get the engineering position that he was qualified for and he said, “The shipyard showed me something, so I became very, very protective of myself and my rights. I demanded my rights.” Some years later, he did get that position and retired from the shipyard in 1998.
Most of the alumni spoke of attending school fondly, remembering their teachers, friendships, and the education they received, despite the inequities and limited resources. They chalked it up to it just being the way things were, and you make the best of what you have.
The stories of the alumni shine a light on what it takes to have character, strength, perseverance, resiliency, and a thirst for knowledge. If you would like to learn more, please contact Chesapeake Parks, Recreation and Tourism Historical Services, 757-382-6411, and set up a time to tour the Cornland School Museum.
