Locating Slavery's Legacies @ Virginia Military Institute

Memorial Place

Academic Facility

Pro-Civil Rights

Walter Nathaniel Ridley

Ridley Hall

Ridley Hall, originally constructed in 1973, serves as the academic space for faculty, staff and graduate students of the UVA School of Education and Human Development (formerly the Curry School of Education). The hall was originally dedicated as Ruffner Hall after William H. Ruffner. It was built for the school of education, then named after named after Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, a Confederate leader and post-Emancipation Virginia educator who was committed to a segregated two-track education system. In 2020, after researching both Curry and Ruffner and engaging with faculty, students, and alumni, the education school renamed, dropping Curry's name. They also renamed Ruffner Hall, choosing to memorialize Walter Nathaniel Ridley, who became UVA’s first Black graduate when he completed his doctorate in education in 1953. Ridley, born April 1, 1910, was one of eight children,.His grandfather had been born into slavery. Ridley earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Howard University, and then applied for a doctorate at UVA, the only institution in Virginia that granted such a degree. While continuing to seek admission to UVA despite repeated denials, he taught psychology at Virginia State College (now Virginia State University), where he fatefully met Dean Stiles from UVA's Curry School of Education. After meeting with Stiles, Ridley applied again, this time twas admitted. He was also the first Black American to receive an academic doctoral degree from a traditional Southern white college or university.

Zabir Arham

May 3, 2025

2000-Present: Memorialization in the Era of Universities Studying Slavery and the Black Lives Matter Movement

405 Emmet St S, Charlottesville, VA 22904

University of Virginia; Charlottesville, Virginia

UVA School of Education and Human Development

Coy, Brian. “Curry School Renaming Recommendation Referred to University Board of Visitors.” UVA Today, 10 May 2020, news.virginia.edu/content/curry-school-renaming-recommendation-referred-university-board-visitors.

Coy, Brian. “UVA Renames Building for Walter Ridley, First African American to Earn Doctoral Degree.” UVA Today, 4 June 2020, news.virginia.edu/content/uva-renames-building-walter-ridley-first-african-american-earn-doctoral-degree.

“The Life of Walter N. Ridley.” Ridley Scholarship Program, 5 Dec. 2023, alumni.virginia.edu/ridley/about/life-walter-n-ridley/.

Ruffner, Harrite. “Letter from Harriet A. Ruffner to Her Uncle.” Juel, juel.iath.virginia.edu/exist/cocoon/juel/juel_one?doc=%2Fdb%2FJUEL%2Fletters%2Fgeneral%2FRuffnerUncle_1850_11_01.xml&key=P43709#m1. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.

Altered - Renamed