Sixty years ago, eight courageous students walked through the doors of Hanover County’s segregated schools, defying resistance and reshaping history.

This month, their legacy will be permanently honored.

The Hanover Branch NAACP, in partnership with Hanover County Public Schools, will host two commemorative ceremonies recognizing these pioneers of school integration. Plaques will be unveiled at Patrick Henry High School and Mechanicsville High School, serving as lasting tributes to their bravery and contributions to racial equality.

The first ceremony, set for April 14 at Patrick Henry High School, will honor sisters Arlene and Harriett Thompson.

One week later, on April 21, Mechanicsville High School, formerly known as Lee-Davis High School, will celebrate the perseverance of Raymond Bagby, Jacqueline and Blanche Holmes, and siblings Walter, Norbert and Phyllis Lee. Walter and Norbert Lee, along with their cousin Phyllis Lee, are the surviving members of the Mechanicsville group and will receive individual plaques.

“These plaques stand as lasting symbols of their courage and the strides they made in transforming our educational system,” said Pat Jordan, president of the Hanover NAACP.

Their journey was not easy. Like much of Virginia, Hanover County clung to segregation under the state’s Massive Resistance policy, delaying integration until the courts forced action. Even then, the road was paved with hardship.

“In the locker room when the teacher wasn’t around, some of the guys would say, ‘I smell a gar—not a cigar, but a niggar,’” Norbert Lee said. “Extra-curriculars weren’t for us. I don’t know if they would have allowed it, but after everything we went through in class and in the hallways, you didn’t even want to try.”

For Walter and Norbert Lee, the name-calling, the cold shoulders, and the exclusion were daily battles. Yet, those trials shaped them.

“We did a very momentous thing—we didn’t realize it then,” Walter Lee said. “But looking back, if I could go through that, I know there’s nothing I can’t tackle.”

The April 14 ceremony at Patrick Henry High School begins at 2 p.m. and the April 21 event at Mechanicsville High School starts at 3 p.m.